MY RIGHT TO SAFE FOOD

'The Foundation for New Agriculture' taking roots

2012-01-15T08:51:00.000-08:00

We ushered in the new year with an energised start that saw a gathering of 14 veteran natural farmers up at Patanjali Yog Peeth in Haridwar to discuss the potential of agriculture with a new dimension. Agriculture that is safe, sustainable, user friendly and affordable by marginal farmers.

I am truly delighted to share the highlights of this 4 day meet (1st - 5th Jan) with you.

The 'One small step towards chemical free agriculture' as Devinder coins it, is his brain child.( article below). For a long time now, it has been Devinder's mission to equip marginal farmers and release them from debts by linking like-minded green guardians on a common platform, help provide alternative safe farming practices. Hence, revolutionize the safe food movement, a dream now slowly manifesting not just for him but for all of us.

By educating and winning the trust of most spiritual leaders on food and trade issues, Devinder's concerns finds a voice to awaken and alert a vast devotee following. His perseverance is bound to bear fruition. His consistent proactive advice and interactions with Swami Ramdev, the yoga guru whose unceasing zeal since 2002 has been to educate the masses daily on a package of seven simple breathing exercises whose message to all, more so to young India, is to take charge of the mind, body and soul. In fact while at the deliberations, we were invited by Swami Ramdevji to partake in his yog session amidst 40,000 devotees. Most admirable, especially when you get to witness first hand a 100 Surya Namaskaars in record time of 4 mins! Whilst each one of were dazed, overwhelmed at his energy levels, it also unraveled how unfit we all were! Swamiji does not just advocate good health through yog but to indulge in safe foods and avail the benefits of Ayurveda to make it an integral part of one's life rather than to be at the mercy of hospitals.

To this effect, Swami Ramdevji wished to explore how safe sustainable agricultural practices could be brought into the forefront of National food security that starts at the grass roots. Hence, 14 best practitioners in this field were identified from across the country and then invited for a 4 day deliberation at Haridwar. We had the privilege of Swami Ramdevji's energised presence throughout these 4 days from 9am- 8.30pm!

I have yet to know of any spiritual leader who takes such deep interest and quality time out to understand the best practices presented by each one of our veteran farmers. My joy knew no bounds as i had the privilege and opportunity to present and share my farm learnings with Swami Ramdevji, Devinder and our humble agriculture gurus. This was aired live on Aastha channel. The genuine interest, the probing dilemmas, the crisis faced by our farmers, the solutions were dissected and tackled in earnest by Swami Ramdevji. Most inspiring to see his intensity during our presentations, the grave questions asked, jotting relevant points in his small black note pad, then summed it all up with much ease.

It did not just stop there. The most important issue that arose was how this would translate on the ground. Then came an action plan to execute three safe sustainable farm models in Hardiwar to start with, as seeing is believing! Prompt decisions were instantly taken by Swami Ramdevji and Acharya Balkrishanji to allocate land in Hardiwar for the 3 farm models. Suresh Desai a founding member of an Organic Farmers' Club with over 400 members in Belgaum District of Karnataka will design a model, Subhash Sharma- whose 32 acre farm in Yavatmal is flourishing, and has become a model for hundreds of other farmers will design the second one. And me and team Annadana the third one...on the traditional vegetable and cereal for the purpose of seed production, multiplication and conservation. Concurrently Team Annadana will also design a seed bank, one that is replicable.

Further, to strengthen our models, the back up ammunition of time tested knowledge and expertise arising from our team of Krishi Vigyaans or Krishi Rishi as Swami Ramdevji fondly calls us are Natbar Sarangiji who maintains 365 indigenous rice germplasm collection, Raghuvanjiji on 100's of varieties of indigenous wheat, Dr Surendar Dalal expertise has no bounds on insect and pest management, Dr Narayan Reddy on his wisdom of integrated farm practices, Rajbir Singh from All India Pingalwara Amritsar sharing his successful experience, Amarjit Singh Sharma from Faridkot who continues with vigor in producing and marketing safe crops in the most infested toxic bowl of Punjab, Shoor vir Singh from Uttar Pradesh whose knowledge on 95 varieties of weeds and their uses is just incredible, Ahir Mayan Hamir from Kutch with his expertise on groundnuts and castor and the young new age farmer Poorvi Vyas, with her research and development background so handy to document and aid each one us willingly and cheerfully.

Work has already commenced in the selected fields with best practices in soil fertility management being implemented. A team of reliable, enterprising points of contact co-ordinated by Vinod Kumar Birkhani, Uttarakhand open university, school of agriculture and Sanjay Khare, a dedicated sevak from Patanjali Peet Yog are monitoring this whilst we have come back to our respective destinations carrying forward the energy to our teams.

There is a buzz, an excitement, a challenge to plan and showcase low cost sustainable farm models and we hope to see this through in 2012.

An overwhelming response of interest and support continues to flow when Devinder Sharma's wrote about this on his facebook. Those interested to lend support may connect him on hunger55@gmail.com

One small step towards chemical-free agriculture
by Devinder Sharma
For quite sometime now there has been a silent resurgence in sustainable farming practices across the country. After the environmental destruction wrought by the chemical-based external input driven agriculture for almost four decades now, I find a large percentage of farmers trying whatever they can to salvage the situation. While on the one hand I can count a sizable number of progressive farmers in different parts of the country who discarded chemical-based farming system (and some of them were even awarded and honoured for achieving record yields) and opted for more sustainable farming practices, there is quite a significant proportion of the farming community which has moved away from the Green Revolution approach to farming.

Call it organic agriculture or natural farming or holistic farming or whatever variation you can think of, the fact remains that Low External Input-based Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) is now being increasingly adopted. Innovative farmers are trying all kinds of permutations and combinations, and I am really amazed at the extent of wisdom our farmers carry. I am not going to list here the innovations being applied, but all I can say is that the mainline agricultural research system would certainly be the gainer if they were to move out of the 'lab-to-land' approach and follow the reverse mode of 'land-to-lab'.

For quite sometime I had wondered if I could ever bring some of these innovative leaders together on a platform and chart out a strategy to put this all together and spread it across the country in a mission mode. I am aware of the reluctance on the part of the agriculture universities as well as the policy makers to extend a helping hand. At the same time, I was also aware of the limitations that the civil society has. Although several groups/individuals are spearheading the silent movement in their own way, but given the monumental constraints that prevail, it isn't moving ahead at a pace I would have expected.

At my own level I had discussed the possibility of forming a consortium with like-minded groups/farmer organisations to spread sustainable farming practices far and wide and to even the remote corners but somehow it didn't work out. It was then that I met the Yoga Guru Swami Ramdev who is better known for the monumental role he has played in promoting healthy living through yoga. Healthy living is directly related to healthy food, which in turn is directly proportionate to cultivation of healthy crops. Over the period, we discussed the possibility of laying out sustainable farming models, where soil, water and food is not poisoned, and then preparing an outreach programme through regular training and learning exercises.

The New Year provided an opportunity. 14 well-known practitioners in sustainable farming methods assembled at Haridwar (at the foothills of the Himalayas) for deliberations which continued non-stop for 4 days. We would sit from 9 in the morning and the discussions would go on till 8.30 in the evening. Such was the intensity of deliberations and the commitment to the cause that even after dinner the participants would once again assemble for an informal round of discussions. Well, to cut the long story short, it has now been decided to layout three models of chemical-free farming, each catering to the requirement of farmers who farm in one acre, two acres and five acres. Once the farming system comes up in Haridwar, we would throw it open to farmers to adopt and improve upon depending upon their local conditions and requirements. This would simultaneously be followed with preparations for a nationwide training programme, which too would depend upon the need and the requirement of different regions.

The plots were selected, earmarked and soil preparations began the day the deliberations ended. Soil samples have been drawn, and we are now getting ready for the next step. Meanwhile, a week-by-week action plan has been laid out, and the package of practices to be immediately followed is also being worked out, and improved with each passing day. Soon after Swami Ramdev made public the initiative on Aastha TV channel, I have been deluged with requests and support from hundreds of people from across the country. Let us hope that this small initiative galvanises the country to move away from 'business as usual' in agriculture, and ends up promoting healthy farming. I am looking for the day when agriculture does not lead to suicides, does not push farmers into distress, and above all does not usurp the natural resources. The Haridwar initiative is a small step, and I am aware we have a long journey ahead. #

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H.H. Yogrishi Swami Ramdev Inaugurates the Annadana Seed Bank

2011-12-11T01:24:00.000-08:00

The Annadana Seed Bank was inaugurated and blessed by H.H. Yogrishi Swami Ramdev at Ishana in Gopathi farms on 6th Dec 2011. The first of its kind in Bangalore, the core objective of Annadana Seed Bank is Annam bahu kurvita which translates to 'Multiply the grain manifold', ensuring an abundance of food.

Swami Ramdev was warmly welcomed and greeted by Annadana's farmer's children who school at Parmanand Education trust run by Anita Narshiman.

Inaugurating the seed bank for traditional heritage seeds Swami Ramdev said “Our seeds are our heritage. Through the conservation of our traditional seeds, we are reclaiming our Swabhiman”. He called upon all farmers in the country to start conserving traditional seeds as a duty to their motherland. The Swami Ramdev appreciated the efforts taken by Annadana seed savers to build a low cost sustainable farm model one that is replicable through out the country. Annadana's Seed Bank being a unique model uses low-cost material for insulation of the walls to ensure controlled conditions of temperature and moisture. What truly appealed to him was that this could be applied to any traditional existing structure by rural farmers and farming communities at village and district levels with minimal investment. The wooden racks with mesh drying trays are so well designed that provides seeds with adequate shade and ventilation. An hot air oven determines and eliminates moisture in seed by drying under precisely prescribed and controlled conditions. This influences the longevity and viability of seeds. Traditional vegetable seeds displayed of diverse varieties of corns, capsicums, brinjals, lettuces, tomatoes and more in just one season of four month vegetable crop cycle intrigued Swamiji. He added 'Sangita will help in replicating this seed bank in all villages throughout our country to preserve our rich heritage'. The Seed Bank has been designed and built under the supervision of Ashok Kamath, a practical and hands-on innovator.

This honour bestowed on Annadana's spirited team of energised farmers was truly gratifying.

Swami Ramdevji was thereafter accompanied on an brisk educational farm trail themed 'From Soil to Seed to Plate'.

Swami Ramdev’s dream an “Entirely healthy India & healthy world.” He is closely involved with creating employment opportunities for rural marginal farmers and ensuring safe food, a mission that Annadana has been striving to facilitate for a decade and will continue in its endevour with much vigor.
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About Annadana

Annadana’s founder trustee Sangita Sharma, a self contained organic farmer said "Through a dynamic agro-ecology knowledge model in practice in a 5 acre certified farm, we engage in intensive field-based research and offer hands-on training to farmers from across the country in integrated farming practises from soil regeneration to seed conservation”. The hard reality that farmers today are losing their age-old knowledge of seed saving techniques is also cause for serious concern. “Annadana's mission is to revive this ancient art and science of seed saving, restore the farmers' right to open pollinated heritage seeds and empower them to be debt-free. This, it regards as central to ensuring India’s national food security”.

Annadana Soil & Seed Savers Network is a Bangalore based registered non-profit that has been working for a decade to safeguard the rich diversity of heritage(traditional) vegetable seeds and restore the livelihood of rural marginal farmers. It produces, conserves, and multiplies over a 100 varieties of open-pollinated vegetable heritage seeds and a few cereals. Over the past eight years, about 25-35,000 organic vegetable seed packets have been distributed free of cost each year to marginal farmers, throughout India.

FUN FARMING AT ISHANA FARMS

2011-06-14T05:18:00.000-07:00

Annadana's Innovative low cost farming techniques

2011-06-07T04:17:00.000-07:00

Annadana Soil and Seed Savers completes a year of operations in Bangalore on 14th June 2011. An integrated approach in holistic farming using low cost techniques is the mission. Seed saving being the centrifugal aim. In six acres at Ishana Farms, a unique agro ecology model is being translated on to the ground. The mantra followed here is "From soil to seed to plate". Be it from growing millet & cereal crops like ragi, oats, paddy, wheat, corn for farm consumption to around 65 vegetable diversity of organic seeds conserved within 9 months to aid farmers to take charge of their seeds.

Spectacular transformations commenced under the concerted efforts by my senior agronomist John Paul. John is a wonder man with a striking ability to achieve the impossible. One has to just bounce an idea, lo and behold it is implemented with such thought, precision with details and care. Rare quality to find. No wonder John commands enormous respect amongst the varied team he leads which comprises of a young enthusiastic biotechnologist to a team of dedicated hard working farmers.

Surprising isn't it and refreshing that in this day and age, farmers do not wish to give up agriculture! When a farmer is treated with respect and dignity given fair remuneration package and perks like children's education, medical expenses, insurance taken care off, then why would farmers wish to quit. Unfortunately, our government is so seeped in their own power & greed driven agendas that farmer's welfare is the last on their minds. Devinder Sharma for a decade now has been suggesting that farmers be provided with a fixed monthly income but it has gone on deaf years. With the recent spade of events, we have lost a golden opportunity when Baba Ramdev was striving to not just revive agriculture but set this corrupt house of government in order to bring transparency and economic progress for us Indians.

Well, let me not deviate but share some of our low cost innovative techniques:
1. Bio-Digestor - Immunity booster and a bio pesticide.The large tank is Fermentation tank which collects cow dung, cow urine along with weeds like Parthenium, lantana, calatropis and more along with medicinal and insecticide plants like neem, amla, adutoda. This is allowed to ferment for 30 days. After which the concentrate which is a bio pesticide filters into the smaller collection tank. Can be use both as a foliar spray or via Soil application. Cost of digging the pits, concrete rings with concrete base, plastering and four days wages of two farm help - Rs 5,000.
P.S - A large rectangle plastered & constructed tanks(quite expensive) can be seen at Bio centre Hulimavu. The original idea came from Dr Ramakrishnappa, Asst Director Horticulture, Karnataka. We adapted this with innovative design to suit farmers needs.

2. Fertigation is a process which applies organic growth promoters and natural fertilizers through irrigation water directly to the root zone. Immunity boosters such as amrit pani, panchgavyaa, bio pesticide and more mixed with irrigation water is channeled through this recycled plastic storage barrel to the main pipe line. This is a controlled method of applying fertilizer depending on the crop and saves manpower.
Cost - Recycled drum and half day wage

3. Vermi Wash - Recycled plastic barrel with broken bricks, sand, native soil, cow dung, earthworms and hay. This is left for 15 days. Thereafter 5 litres if water is introduced into this vermi compost which washes potent macro and micro nutrients."
Cost - Recycled plastic barrel and cost of one day labour rest inputs are INSITU

A Coke Factor

2011-05-26T00:14:00.000-07:00

Ganga, a farmer who uses Coke Cola to clean my toilet commodes

For over two decades, now I have been using Coke to clean my toilets. Cheap toilet cleaner. If you cannot believe it, the image above speaks for itself. When visitors come home, they are rather surprised and aghast as to what a 2 ltr Coke bottle is doing next to my commode. My response "I do not need more harsh toxic chemicals like Harpic to cleanse my commode. Instead a two litre party pack of Coke can do the same job". As for killing the germs, I use Citronella drops (medicinal grass that grows wild around my farm). By the way, Odomos the mosquito repellant is made from Citronella, hopefully natural and not synthetic! You can buy this essential oil - Citronella from any organic retail store" or where essential oils are available. Perhaps you can check Bangalore stores like Mother Earth and organic retail outlets stores like Era Organics, Parisara, Jiavik Krishik( Lalbagh) stocking them.

I recall in the year 2000 in one of my flights to Mumbai, I met an Arab couple who were most disturbed with the ailing condition of their children. They were visiting a leading hospital for treatment. When i saw their children aged 10 & 14, I could understand their plight. Obese, teeth infested and high pitched tantrums. Tearfully the mother confided in me "If i do not give them Coke or Pepsi with fast foods, hell lets loose". Such a sordid state of affairs. And the carbonated drinks industry & fast food/refined processed foods gets away with murder.

At least First Lady Michele Obama dared to bring about a change in schools. To quote NY time "The Obama administration announced a plan to ban candy and sweetened beverages from schools. A campaign against childhood obesity will be led by the first lady, Michelle Obama. And a growing number of public health advocates are pushing for even more aggressive actions, urging that soda be treated like tobacco: with taxes, warning labels and a massive public health marketing campaign, all to discourage consumption". View link - http://nyti.ms/aVTDZB

This article below prompted me to share my journey with Coke. The cartoon Choke is rather apt. As the author rightly states "This isn't an attack on the Coca-Cola or Pepsi corporations. It's a revealing of the truth about all carbonated beverages. This has been widely reported in many authoritative sources".
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Soft drinks: Unsafe beverages
http://www.mindconnection.com/library/health/softdrinks.htm
We would also like to thank Dr. Mercola, at www.mercola.com for helping to get this article out in front of people.

Amazingly, Americans (and people in other countries) actually drink a product that can rightfully be called Osteoporosis In a Can. And, it gets worse from there. Read on.

This poison goes by many brand names, such as Coca Cola and Pepsi. Generically, this poison is on the market in formulations known as soda, pop, and soft drinks. It includes all carbonated beverages--even carbonated plain water. The various substances in sodas compound the problem, especially the typical formulations with their carbonic acid or phosphoric acid.

Reading the rest of this article may be the best use you've ever made of 5 minutes. Yeah, we know Pepsi will never sponsor an ad on this site. But your health is more important to us.

It's tragic that the "beverage" industry shoves this toxic brew at human beings. Let's take a closer look at what it does.
Calcium loss in bones
The carbonation in all soft drinks causes calcium loss in the bones through a three-stage process:

The carbonation irritates the stomach.
The stomach "cures" the irritation the only way it knows how. It adds the only antacid at its disposal: calcium. It gets this from the blood.
The blood, now low on calcium, replenishes its supply from the bones. If it did not do this, muscular and brain function would be severely impaired.
But, the story doesn't end there. Another problem with most soft drinks is they also contain phosphoric acid (not the same as the carbonation, which is carbon dioxide mixed with the water). This substance also causes a drawdown on the store of calcium.

So, soft drinks soften your bones (actually, they make them weak and brittle) in three ways:

Carbonation reduces the calcium in the bones.
Phosphoric acid reduces the calcium in the bones.
The beverage replaces a calcium-containing alternative, such as milk or water. Milk and water are not excellent calcium sources, but they are sources.
Diabetes in a can

The picture gets worse when you add sugar to the soft drink. The sugar, dissolved in liquid, is quickly carried to the bloodstream, where its presence in overload quantities signals the pancreas to go into overdrive. The pancreas has no way of knowing if this sugar inrush is a single dose or the front-end of a sustained dose. The assumption in the body's chemical controls is the worst-case scenario. To prevent nerve damage from oxidation, the pancreas pumps out as much insulin as it can. Even so, it may not prevent nerve damage.

But, this heroic effort of the pancreas has a hefty downside. The jolt of insulin causes the body to reduce the testosterone in the bloodstream, and to depress further production of it. In both men and women, testosterone is the hormone that controls the depositing of calcium in the bones. You can raise testosterone through weight-bearing exercise, but if you are chemically depressing it via massive sugar intake (it takes very small quantities of sugar to constitute a massive intake, because refined sugar is not something the human body is equipped to handle), then your body won't add calcium to the bones.

Add this to what we discussed above, and you can see that drinking sweetened colas is a suicidal endeavor. And now you know why bone damage formerly apparent only in the very old is now showing up in teenagers.

Cancer in a can

In the spring of 2005, research showed a strong correlation between esophageal cancer and the drinking of carbonated beverages. We aren't providing extensive detail here yet, because the subject is still rolling through the medical community. Basically, it works like this:

You drink soda.
It makes you burp (acid reflux, actually).
The burping carries acid into the esophagus, causing lesions.
The lesions become cancerous.
So, maybe it's not so bad if you sip sodas instead of guzzle them. By the time this issue settles out through double blind studies (rather than statistical analysis only), that is probably what researchers will conclude. It's common sense.

Of course, the soft drink companies have conducted their own flawed studies using flawed methods to obtain the flawed results they want. This way, they can deny that their toxic products also cause esophageal cancer in addition to other diseases their beverages cause. I wonder if these folks have flawed sleep at night, or if they are just psychopathic?

Do a Yahoo or Google search on softdrinks + esophageal cancer, and you'll get several thousand pages of results. Most of the articles say softdrinks "may" cause esophageal cancer. And that's true--in the sense that lying down on a railroad track "may" get you run over by a train or holding a revolver with one bullet in it and pulling the trigger "may" blow your brains out. It's a game of chance. How many chances do you want to take?

Big brother doesn't understand you: the success of a GM food no-one wanted to buy,

2011-05-20T09:44:00.000-07:00

Dr Peter Quaife’s illuminating food industry article: Big brother doesn't understand you: the success of a GM food no-one wanted to buy, indicates some of the ways in which a sales promotion was presented as a serious research project. For an indepth exploration of related issues see his PhD thesis. (1)

His account of the introduction of a genetically modified tomato purée for sale in some supermarkets (1996) shows data being manipulated to reflect the agenda of those who collect it, and their interpretation providing a false picture of the views of consumers. He recalls:

The launch was considered by those involved to be a success. Sales were unusually high for a new product, and demand outstripped supply. Clear labelling, information leaflets and the provision of non-genetically modified (GM) alternatives led to it being held up as an example of good practice by both industry and consumer groups. The way seemed clear for a gradual roll-out of more GM products to an eager public.

During a research interview ‘Brian’ explained that his company selected certain stores known to have price sensitive customers with a willingness to accept new technology – often in towns with a student population – and maximised sales during the test launch by selling the product cheaply as the supermarket’s 'own brand'.

‘Andrew’ said the suppliers of the product had been pressured into artificially reducing the price and that the goal of the launch was to gain acceptance for the technology

Information leaflets for customers emphasised the position of those in favour of the technology.

Quaife finds: “the sales data collected reflected not customer wants, but how much a particular group of customers could be persuaded to buy . . . On this basis, each can of conventional purée sold could be argued to represent a consumer who has decided to pay more to avoid the GM variety, whereas those who bought the GM version may be less likely to have made a judgement on the technology at all.”

The relative sales of conventional/modified purées were not discussed.

A Unilever sponsored study undertaken by Lancaster University (2) found:

powerful notions of inevitability and powerlessness influenced purchasing decisions, with the result that GM products could be bought by individuals opposed to the technology. These feelings of inevitability seemed to reflect a felt absence of choice and a sense that, realistically speaking, the technology was unstoppable. Such inevitability appeared to lie behind feelings of passive resignation in the majority of groups. (p53)

Dr Quaife concludes that the launch was promotional, but the sales figures collected were represented as research, leading to an inflated picture of the demand for GM food and points out the complexity of the issues raised by the first GM food to go on sale:

Not only does it represent a technology with the potential to revolutionise food production, impacts are probable on the environment, food security, control of food production (particularly by multinational corporations), world trade, democracy and humanity's relationship with the rest of nature.

An attempt to represent public perceptions of such complex issues purely through the use of sales figures is unlikely to yield useful results.

1. Quaife, P. (1999), Linkages Between Ecocentric Values and Action in Expert Discourse: The Case of Genetically Modified Food in the UK, PhD Thesis (forthcoming), Birmingham: The University of Aston in Birmingham.

Peter Quaife E-mail: ZPQuaife@aol.com
2. Grove-White, R. Macnaghten, P. Mayer, S. and Wynne, B. (1997), Uncertain World: Genetically Modified Organisms, Food and Public Attitudes in Britain, Lancaster: Lancaster

The whole article can be downloaded from http://www.radstats.org.uk/no073/article4.htm

Experience of a life time at Patanjali Yogpeeth

2011-05-17T05:53:00.000-07:00

Last month, I had the privilege of being invited to Patanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar. Being on stage with the most revered Baba Ramdevji, Acharya Balkrishanji and Babu Murariji, amidst a host of renowned dignitaries was such a honour. To address Babaji's huge following of devotees in Hindi re the assault in our food chain, dietary shifts & revert to traditional diet was an exhilarating experience. The thought of speaking in my broken Hindi had me nervous at first. But safe foods, a subject close to my heart with soil and seeds most sacred to me had me flowing fine.

This was aired live on Astha Channel on 9th April 2011. It may have been repeated several times for the response is staggering and still pouring in. I gave a traditional Intestine toner formula followed world over by our ancestors. A home made recipe made from whey in yogurt to increase the good intestinal flora. Whey heals stomach ailments, keeps muscles young, joints and ligaments elastic.

This recipe is called Beet Kvas, an invaluable lacto fermented tonic. It aids digestion, increases the friendly bacteria in the gut, alkalises the blood, cleanses the liver and is a good treatment for kidney stones.

It is anaerobic fermentation. Cut 2 medium sized beetroots chopped up coarsely , whey( water from the curd) and salt and put all in a clean glass container (1.5-2 litre capacity). Add filtered water to fill the container. Stir well and cover securely( no air). Keep at room temperature for two days so that it ferments and then transfer into the refrigerator. But first remove and keep some of this as inoculant (jaag in hindi) aside for a fresh brew.

Drink daily a cupful, then when you have finished drinking 3/4 of the brew from this jar, add more water and salt to make a second brew ( this will be not as potent as the first) then discard. So from one brew you can drink twice and then discard.

Use the inoculant (jaag) that you first kept aside and start again by adding fresh beetroot pieces +salt. This way you continue increasing the acidophillus( friendly bacteria) in the lining of your stomach

Note - Do not use grated beets in this preparation. grated beets exude too much juice and ferments rapidly that favors production of alochol rather than lactic acid.

Enjoy. This is the most refreshing drink and cooling in summer. Serve to family, friends, children slightly chilled. This way you increase you immunities and keep disease out of homes! This is a must for those who are on antibiotics as its a probiotic. It helps line your intestines against corrosive chemical reactions from antibiotics.

Heath Tip - Omega 3 benefits

2011-05-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

Why do we need Omega 3? How do you derive Omega 3 in vegetarian and non-veg diets?
Omega 3 is an EFA (essential fatty acid). Studies suggest Omega 3 enriches our diet is a remedy for constipation, functional disorders of the colon - resulting from the misuse of laxatives and irritable colon, helps stabilize blood glucose levels, promotes bone health, fight tumor formation, enhances cardiovascular health, lowers blood pressure, cuts the risk of cancer and even helps memory loss.

For vegetarians - Omega 3 is obtained from pumpkin seeds, walnuts & flax seeds also known as linseed( In India, it is commonly known as 'alsi'), When ground flaxseeds taste similar to pine nuts except that its sticky/gooyi on the gums/teeth if eaten directly with water.

Usage - To avoid this, use Flaxseed in morning cereal or my favorite dessert after lunch is a bowl of fresh yogurt, add 2 tsps flaxseed powder with one tsp of cane sugar or jaggary. (For diabetics just flaxseed in yogurt with stevia powder if you wish)
Flax oil is fine if it is good quality and in small amounts. 1/2 tsp of oil per day is all you need. Pour oil over salads, pastas, pizza, tastes delicious.

Storage - Flaxseeds can be ground in small quantities and stored in a air tight glass bottle in refrigerator. If it is flax oil, once opened it goes back in the refrigerator as it goes rancid.

Other snacks high in Omega 3 - You can snack on pumpkin seeds or walnuts on a daily basis.

For non vegetarians- Egg yolks from pastured hens, liver and oily fish & cod liver oil capsules

Caution - High doses of flax seeds can have an adverse effect on the hormonal balance of the body. If you are taking coconut oil and other saturated fats, your body actually needs very little omega-3 because saturated fats ensure that the omega-3s are used very effectively and conserved in the tissues. So you do not need to be adding extra omega-3s to your diet, otherwise it could be harmful and dangerous to overdose on omega-3.

As for omega-6-they are in all foods.
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In response to the questions asked since comments is not uploading

1. Can pumpkin seeds be dried,lightly fried and eaten then????

The best way to eat most nuts like pumpkin, sunflower, melon seeds is to soak them for a min of 12 -18 hrs, dehydrate them in a warm oven, then lightly roast them. In general, nuts contain levels of phytic acid equal to or higher than those of grains. Soaking eliminates some phytates.

High-phytate diets result in mineral deficiencies. In populations where cereal grains provide a major source of calories, rickets and osteoporosis are common

2. Does one have to differentiate between river fish and sea-fish????

Oil-rich fish such as salmon, trout, mackerel, herring and sardines, are an excellent source of Omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential to our diet.

ORGANIC FARMERS AND SEED SELLERS SUE MONSANTO TO PROTECT THEMSELVES

2011-03-30T21:40:00.000-07:00

This is brilliant, such refreshing news. Wish the organic plaintiffs strength to strength and victory. We have the power to heal our planet.

In solidarity
Sangita Sharma
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ORGANIC FARMERS AND SEED SELLERS SUE MONSANTO TO PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM
PATENTS ON GENETICALLY MODIFIED SEED:

Preemptive Action Seeks Ruling
That Would Prohibit Monsanto From Suing Organic Farmers and Seed Growers If Contaminated By Roundup Ready Seed

NEW YORK – March 29, 2011 – On behalf of 60 family farmers, seed
businesses and organic agricultural organizations, the Public Patent
Foundation (PUBPAT) filed suit today(http://www.pubpat.org/assets/files/seed/OSGATA-v-Monsanto-Complaint.pdf) against Monsanto Company to challenge the chemical giant's patents on genetically modified seed. The organic plaintiffs were forced to sue preemptively to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement should they ever become contaminated by Monsanto's genetically modified seed, something Monsanto has done to others in the past.
The case, Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto,was filed in federal district court in Manhattan and assigned to Judge
Naomi Buchwald. Plaintiffs in the suit represent a broad array of
family farmers, small businesses and organizations from within the
organic agriculture community who are increasingly threatened by
genetically modified seed contamination despite using their best efforts
to avoid it. The plaintiff organizations have over 270,000 members,
including thousands of certified organic family farmers.

“This case asks whether Monsanto has the right to sue organic farmers
for patent infringement if Monsanto's transgenic seed should land on
their property,” said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT's Executive Director and
Lecturer of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. “It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such
accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers
for patent infringement, so we had to act to protect the interests of
our clients.”

Once released into the environment, genetically modified seed
contaminates and destroys organic seed for the same crop. For example,
soon after Monsanto introduced genetically modified seed for canola,
organic canola became virtually extinct as a result of contamination.
Organic corn, soybeans, cotton, sugar beets and alfalfa now face the
same fate, as Monsanto has released genetically modified seed for each
of those crops, too. Monsanto is developing genetically modified seed
for many other crops, thus putting the future of all food, and indeed
all agriculture, at stake.

In the case, PUBPAT is asking Judge Buchwald to declare that if organic
farmers are ever contaminated by Monsanto's genetically modified seed,
they need not fear also being accused of patent infringement. One
reason justifying this result is that Monsanto's patents on genetically
modified seed are invalid because they don't meet the “usefulness”
requirement of patent law, according to PUBPAT's Ravicher, plaintiffs'
lead attorney in the case. Evidence cited by PUBPAT in its opening
filing today proves that genetically modified seed has negative economic
and health effects, while the promised benefits of genetically modified
seed – increased production and decreased herbicide use – are false.

“Some say transgenic seed can coexist with organic seed, but history
tells us that's not possible, and it's actually in Monsanto's financial
interest to eliminate organic seed so that they can have a total
monopoly over our food supply,” said Ravicher. “Monsanto is the same
chemical company that previously brought us Agent Orange, DDT, PCB's and
other toxins, which they said were safe, but we know are not. Now
Monsanto says transgenic seed is safe, but evidence clearly shows it is
not.”

The plaintiffs in the suit represented by PUBPAT are: Organic Seed
Growers and Trade Association; Organic Crop Improvement Association
International, Inc.; OCIA Research and Education Inc.; The Cornucopia
Institute; Demeter Association, Inc.; Navdanya International; Maine
Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association; Northeast Organic Farming
Association/Massachusetts Chapter, Inc.; Northeast Organic Farming
Association of Vermont; Rural Vermont; Ohio Ecological Food & Farm
Association; Southeast Iowa Organic Association; Northern Plains
Sustainable Agriculture Society; Mendocino Organic Network; Northeast
Organic Dairy Producers Alliance; Canadian Organic Growers; Family
Farmer Seed Cooperative; Sustainable Living Systems; Global Organic
Alliance; Food Democracy Now!; Family Farm Defenders Inc.;
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund; FEDCO Seeds Inc.; Adaptive Seeds,
LLC; Sow True Seed; Southern Exposure Seed Exchange; Mumm's Sprouting
Seeds; Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co., LLC; Comstock, Ferre & Co., LLC;
Seedkeepers, LLC; Siskiyou Seeds; Countryside Organics; Cuatro Puertas;
Interlake Forage Seeds Ltd.; Alba Ranch; Wild Plum Farm; Gratitude
Gardens; Richard Everett Farm, LLC; Philadelphia Community Farm, Inc;
Genesis Farm; Chispas Farms LLC; Kirschenmann Family Farms Inc.;
Midheaven Farms; Koskan Farms; California Cloverleaf Farms; North
Outback Farm; Taylor Farms, Inc.; Jardin del Alma; Ron Gargasz Organic
Farms; Abundant Acres; T & D Willey Farms; Quinella Ranch; Nature's Way
Farm Ltd.; Levke and Peter Eggers Farm; Frey Vineyards, Ltd.; Bryce
Stephens; Chuck Noble; LaRhea Pepper; Paul Romero; and, Donald Wright
Patterson, Jr.

Many of the plaintiffs made statements upon filing of the suit today.

Jim Gerritsen, a family farmer in Maine who raises organic seed and is
President of lead plaintiff Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association
based in Montrose, Colorado, said, "Today is Independence Day for
America. Today we are seeking protection from the Court and putting
Monsanto on notice. Monsanto's threats and abuse of family farmers
stops here. Monsanto's genetic contamination of organic seed and
organic crops ends now. Americans have the right to choice in the
marketplace - to decide what kind of food they will feed their families
- and we are taking this action on their behalf to protect that right to
choose. Organic farmers have the right to raise our organic crops for
our families and our customers on our farms without the threat of
invasion by Monsanto's genetic contamination and without harassment by a
reckless polluter. Beginning today, America asserts her right to justice
and pure food."

Dr. Carol Goland, Ph.D., Executive Director of plaintiff Ohio Ecological
Food & Farm Association (OEFFA) said, “Consumers indicate,
overwhelmingly, that they prefer foods made without genetically modified
organisms. Organic farms, by regulation, may not use GMOs, while other
farmers forego using them for other reasons. Yet the truth is that we
are rapidly approaching the tipping point when we will be unable to
avoid GMOs in our fields and on our plates. That is the inevitable
consequence of releasing genetically engineered materials into the
environment. To add injury to injury, Monsanto has a history of suing
farmers whose fields have been contaminated by Monsanto's GMOs. On
behalf of farmers who must live under this cloud of uncertainty and
risk, we are compelled to ask the Court to put an end to this
unconscionable business practice.”

Rose Marie Burroughs of plaintiff California Cloverleaf Farms said, “The
devastation caused by GMO contamination is an ecological catastrophe to
our world equal to the fall out of nuclear radiation. Nature, farming
and health are all being affected by GMO contamination. We must protect
our world by protecting our most precious, sacred resource of seed
sovereignty. People must have the right to the resources of the earth
for our sustenance. We must have the freedom to farm that causes no
harm to the environment or to other people. We must protect the
environment, farmers livelihood, public health and people’s right to non
GMO food contamination.”

Ed Maltby, Executive Director of plaintiff Northeast Organic Dairy
Producers Alliance (NODPA) said, “It's outrageous that we find ourselves
in a situation where the financial burden of GE contamination will fall
on family farmers who have not asked for or contributed to the growth of
GE crops. Family farmers will face contamination of their crops by GE
seed which will threaten their ability to sell crops as organically
certified or into the rapidly growing 'Buy Local' market where consumers
have overwhelmingly declared they do not want any GE crops, and then
family farmers may be faced by a lawsuit by Monsanto for patent
infringement. We take this action to protect family farms who once
again have to bear the consequences of irresponsible actions by Monsanto.”

David L. Rogers, Policy Advisor for plaintiff NOFA Vermont said,
“Vermont’s farmers have worked hard to meet consumers’ growing demand
for certified organic and non-GE food. It is of great concern to them
that Monsanto’s continuing and irresponsible marketing of GE crops that
contaminate non-GE plantings will increasingly place their local and
regional markets at risk and threaten their livelihoods.”

Dewane Morgan of plaintiff Midheaven Farms in Park Rapids, Minnesota,
said, "For organic certification, farmers are required to have a buffer
zone around their perimeter fields. Crops harvested from this buffer
zone are not eligible for certification due to potential drift from
herbicide and fungicide drift. Buffer zones are useless against pollen
drift. Organic, biodynamic, and conventional farmers who grow
identity-preserved soybeans, wheat and open-pollinated corn often save
seed for replanting the next year. It is illogical that these farmers
are liable for cross-pollination contamination."

Jill Davies, Director of plaintiff Sustainable Living Systems in Victor,
Montana, said, “The building blocks of life are sacred and should be in
the public domain. If scientists want to study and manipulate them for
some supposed common good, fine. Then we must remove the profit motive.
The private profit motive corrupts pure science and increasingly
precludes democratic participation.”

David Murphy, founder and Executive Director of plaintiff Food Democracy
Now! said, “None of Monsanto’s original promises regarding genetically
modified seeds have come true after 15 years of wide adoption by
commodity farmers. Rather than increased yields or less chemical usage,
farmers are facing more crop diseases, an onslaught of
herbicide-resistant superweeds, and increased costs from additional
herbicide application. Even more appalling is the fact that Monsanto’s
patented genes can blow onto another farmer’s fields and that farmer not
only loses significant revenue in the market but is frequently exposed
to legal action against them by Monsanto’s team of belligerent lawyers.
Crop biotechnology has been a miserable failure economically and
biologically and now threatens to undermine the basic freedoms that
farmers and consumers have enjoyed in our constitutional democracy.”

Mark Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst for plaintiff The Cornucopia
Institute said, “Family-scale farmers desperately need the judiciary
branch of our government to balance the power Monsanto is able to wield
in the marketplace and in the courts. Monsanto, and the biotechnology
industry, have made great investments in our executive and legislative
branches through campaign contributions and powerful lobbyists in
Washington. We need to court system to offset this power and protect
individual farmers from corporate tyranny. Farmers have saved seeds
since the beginning of agriculture by our species. It is outrageous
that one corporate entity, through the trespass of what they refer to as
their 'technology,' can intimidate and run roughshod over family farmers
in this country. It should be the responsibility of Monsanto, and
farmers licensing their technology, to ensure that genetically
engineered DNA does not trespass onto neighboring farmland. It is
outrageous, that through no fault of their own, farmers are being
intimidated into not saving seed for fear that they will be doggedly
pursued through the court system and potentially bankrupted.”

ABOUT PUBPAT

The Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) is a not-for-profit legal services
organization affiliated with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
PUBPAT protects freedom in the patent system by representing the public
interest against undeserved patents and unsound patent policy. More
information about PUBPAT is available from www.pubpat.org.

CONTACT

Daniel B. Ravicher
Executive Director
PUBLIC PATENT FOUNDATION
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
+1-212-545-5337
press@pubpat.org

How to avoid Pesticides? Part 2

2011-02-10T08:13:00.000-08:00

Courtesy image - http://bit.ly/dTKNeV

The Poisons in your Produce is causing so much of damage to your health, wealth and peace of mind. The hospitals and clinics are loaded with distraught anxious patients. Why?

Our soils are deficient in micro-nutrients such as the vital trace minerals like zinc, copper, iron, manganese, magnesium, boron, selenium and chromium which control the vital aspects of plant growth. Proper genetic expression cannot happen if there is a deficiency or toxicity of a mineral.

The corrosive intensive agriculture mal-practices are reasons for this deficiency. The vegetables and fruits hence produced are devoid of the micro-nutrients that are mentioned above.

So what you are currently consuming and allowing yourself to be consumed is by toxic shallow foods, devoid of any nutrients. The human body is so designed that should any one of these vital trace minerals be missing from your diet, disease is bound to occur. Hope this explains, why we need to raise our voices in unison against the pesticide lobby and policy makers and demand our fundamental right to safe food.

Yes, not every body can afford to buy organic nor become a gardener. But as I mentioned previously, do not separate medical costs from food costs. These two are closely linked.

Do what you can to safeguard your diets. Hope these hints are useful to help reduce your pesticide consumption.

• If you can follow the wise adage " Eat seasonal only" and keep a check on your taste buds, you are less likely to fall ill. Use the locally-grown fruits and vegetables only. What served our ancestors holds good for us. For instance, you eat cauliflower in summer, when the season grown is in winter, then you are asking for trouble.
• Wash your vegetables and fruits like you wash your hands. Pesticides do not come off in water as they are highly insoluble and stick to fatty tissues and resist metabolism. If they did, farmers would have to apply them after each rain or heavy dew.
• Wash fruits & vegetables in khadi soap solution. Recall the good old khadi soap bar 555? Dissolve this bar in warm water. And keep the soap solution in a bottle, Use when needed. You may use detergent which is chemical based, but the safer option is use khadi soap. Soak and rinse vegetables/fruits in this soap solution prior to cooking or eating.
• Alternatively soak them in vinegar over night and then rinse with soap solution.
• Lethal doses of pesticides are in grapes, where testing shows can harbor as many as 34 different pesticides. View this link - http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Dirty-Dozen-Foods#ixzz1ABBvWXVW
• Avoid grapes if you can. I have done so for the past 10 years as I do not require pesticides in my gut nor visits to hospitals! Fortunately, when farmers grow organic grapes, I get to indulge in them and it is worth the price of safety.
• An option for grape lovers. Take a big bunch of red or green grapes. You will notice they are laced in a white powder. Place them in a large bowl or pan of water with khadi soap solution. Swish the grapes around for a minute. Carefully watch the water. You will see evidence that this soap solution works. Seeing is believing.
• It is necessary to rinse soap-washed fruits before eating, It is hardly a burden. Rinse until the water is clear.
• When you handle the soap based or detergent washed fruit, you will also notice that it feels different, too. We are so used to fruit with chemical laden coatings on it that when we touch cleansed fruit, it's a new tactile experience. Go ahead, try it.
• Please note - newly detergent-washed fruit does not keep very well. The former petrochemical coating may serve as a moisture barrier and even an oxidation barrier. So wash only before you eat.
• Vegetables such as cauliflower, cabbage, potatoes are reeking with massive amount of pesticides and fungicides. If you must eat a cauliflower then pick one which has the most amount of worms, if the worms can survive, so can you!
• Another cheapskate hint: save those fungicide laden potatoes that are "no good" and have turned green with sprouted "eyes." Don't throw them away; plant them. The "eyes" are indeed sprouts, each of which will grow into an entire potato plant bearing several or even many more spuds. Cut the potato and plant each piece with an eye on it. No pesticides required in your pot and you can relish your potatoes too.

Fruit alert
Whether you shop be it from a cart or a super market shelf for fruits like mangoes, papayas, bananas, lime that have been chemically ripened. Notice the erratic hives of green spots with uneven tinges of green, yellow, orange. When you cut them to eat, you wonder why there is little taste and no flavour.
Be an observer and stay alert whilst purchasing something that has helped me;
• To identify a natural ripened fruit, watch out for an even gradation of warm colours. From a natural green, the fruit turns a natural smooth hue of yellow then orange. These fruits tastes smells yum and most sweet.
• Many fruits and vegetables are not merely sprayed but are waxed as well. So-called "food grade" waxes improve shelf life, appearance, and coat over and lock in any previously applied pesticides. This poses a problem, for waxes do not readily dissolve in detergent solution. Frequently waxed fruits include apples, pears, eggplant, cucumbers, squash, and even tomatoes are generally waxed. The lack of a high gloss is not proof positive that a fruit is unwaxed: many waxes, like many types of floor polyurethane or spray varnish, are not at all shiny. One way to tell if a fruit or vegetable is waxed is to run your fingernail over it and see if you can scrape anything off.
• The other alternative is to simply peel them. Do not eat apples or pears without peeling the skin. The nutrition that once was, is now laden with chemicals. So force feeding children to eat the skin of an apple is not advisable.

Only from healthy soils will healthy plants grow.
Wake up. Take charge. We are what we eat.

Pesticide laden food has become a way of life

2011-02-07T20:44:00.000-08:00

Part 1

Pesticide residues in our food chain has drastically increased with not a lurking conscience pinching the power driven policy makers neither the bereft farmers. It has become a way of life. Consumers opt to become complacent victims of the two.

Karburgi Kampu, the third Bharat Vikas Sangam event concluded at Gulbarga in Karnataka on 1st January 2011. Each day witnessed over 70 - 80,000 farmers. I had the opportunity to address some of these farmers. In my interactions, they made no bones about the indiscriminate dosage of pesticides they sprayed on vegetables. Aowschadi ( medicine ) was required because their soils were pest infested and infected. As for their own consumption, a pesticide free patch was reserved to grow their vegetables fully aware of the dire consequences of these lethal pesticides. Safe solutions is what they otherwise wished for but both the policies and pesticide companies offered them deals with only debt ridden promises.

“In the last two decades, the farmer has been taught and almost forced to use chemicals increasingly. The farmer is getting bankrupt; his costs are increasing and every year the yield from his poisoned soil decreases. The consumers are worried about the levels of toxicity in the food. Chemical farming has destroyed the soil, the water table, the environment and the livelihood of thousands of villagers. The only ones that are benefiting are the companies that have been promoting chemical farming incessantly(1)

Often I am asked this question “What chemicals and pesticides are used to artificially ripen fruits and vegetables? How can we detect them and what can we do? The later question i tackle in my next article. So watch it for it.

Many techniques are employed to ripen mature fruits, the most commonly used agent is calcium carbide. It has carcinogenic properties and is used in gas welding for steel goods. This method is being used in most of the climacteric fruits (fruits which are picked when mature, and ripened only after they are picked) like mangoes, papayas, apricots and bananas. No wonder, health freaks who go on a fruit diet to keep fit, often end up with mouth ulcers, gastric irritation or even food poisoning. So much for a fruit diet".(2)

"Calcium carbide popularly known as masala is used extensively in mangoes, bananas and papayas, and sometimes in apples and plums. Industrial-grade calcium carbide may contain traces of arsenic and phosphorus, and, thus, use of this chemical for this purpose is illegal in most countries. Calcium carbide, once dissolved in water, produces acetylene, which acts as an artificial ripening agent. Acetylene is believed to affect the nervous system by reducing oxygen supply to brain." (3)

Another chemical named EP-50 is also used to speed up the ripening process. Almost all raw fruits are chemically treated. Banana which is supposed to be the main source of calcium has become the source of serious health problems. Bananas are being mixed with Ethepon, a chemical that can harm vital organs of the body.

Unfortunately, not even a guava is being spared from pesticides. “Poisoned guava fruit of pesticide overuse kills girl in Bathinda” (4). As per an RTI enquiry, hospital record in Bathinda shows that 61 people died by inhaling chemicals while spraying pesticides between 2004 and 2008. The pesticides have also entered the food chain. Studies have detected pesticides --heptachlor and ethion, both carcinogens -in farmers' blood here. The lethal chemicals have also made it to the fodder, vegetables, bovine and human milk(5).

A Sordid Truth

"A Chemical Epidemic" an article in Telhelka reveals "Endosulfan is a deadly insecticide banned in over 68 countries. SO WHY does India take such an entrenched position every time? The answer may lie in the fact that it is the world’s largest producer, consumer and exporter of endosulfan, ranked amongst the top five most commonly used agricultural insecticide in the world. Its current global use, as per industry estimates, is about 35 million litres. In the past five years, India has exported endosulfan to over 70 countries, with more than $150 million worth of exports between 2007 and 2008.

Did you know "Tamil Nadu distributes endosulfan for free after a deal with Cadbury?"

Domestically too, the government is playing an active role in increasing the use of this insecticide. Tamil Nadu has been aggressively promoting endosulfan after the state agriculture department inked an MOU with Cadbury India Limited in 2007 for enhancing cocoa (a cash crop) cultivation in the state. “For 1,000 saplings of cocoa, 4 litres of endosulfan is given free to the farmers. I got 16 litres of endosulfan free with 4,000 cocoa saplings from the State government as part of the scheme,” said a cocoa farmer from Erode district of Tamil Nadu. “These are all dubious means to promote and increase the dependence of farmers on deadly insecticides like endosulfan. Once the farmer gets used to it, it is difficult for him to get out of the vicious pesticide cycle,” says Sridhar of Thanal, member of the Endosulfan Relief Cell in Kerala". (6)

And more, the most unassuming vegetables like Bottle gourd is often injected with a chemical like oxytocin for faster growth that can cause abnormal growth and other complications in human beings. Oxytocin can lead to damage of the brain. Suppliers and hawkers apply synthetic green colours on vegetables like beans and bitter gourd and fruits which contain heavy metals like mercury maintain their "freshness' and maximise profits. Hormones are used for faster growth of pumpkin, watermelon, brinjal, gourd, cucumber. Cheap chemical colours are being used to give the apples the extra sheen. Such chemical induced vegetable and fruits can prove disastrous for the digestive system, eyes and liver. It can result in vomiting and diarrhea in children and kidney failure.

The unfortunate part is even agriculture scientists have convinced themselves that crops, fruits cannot grow without pesticides. A report by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) shows that pesticide residues in grapes, wheat and rice is much higher in Karnataka than levels allowed by the health & family welfare department.(7)

But what are we doing about it? Apart from rushing to hospitals. Why have we reached this stage of despair and so complacent to let the polluters get away with poisoning our food chain? Do you not agree that if doctors and engineers are held responsible for any accidents, so should the scientists and policy makers who advocate such corrosive technologies must be taken to task and pay for it.

As consumers, we put our hands up in the air and moan about the few choices left. We have nothing much to eat is what I get to hear, when I alert consumers. Well, if one does nothing to raise voices against policies and the pesticide lobby, then brace yourself the worst is shortly in the offing. "First, the Biotech industry aggressively promoted chemical farming. Now that we have all woken up to the folly of chemical farming, they have come up with another half-baked, quick-fix in the form of Genetically Engineered Crops. The world now witness an exponential rise in the number of people suffering from unexplained diseases like cancer. Is it far fetched to imagine that there is a link between the two? The world is today seeing various unheard of diseases like the Mad Cow, the Bird Flu and the Swine Flu.”(1). Every second home you peer in into has a diabetic, cancer, heart patient and more.

Overcome this crisis with rationale

Eat healthy! How do you do this with the rising costs of pesticide laden food, gas and everything else? This is a question often asked by people when considering how to safeguard their diets. However, the real question should be “How can you afford not to eat healthy with the high costs of being ill?”

Being an organic farmer, I advocate purchasing chemical-free foods whenever possible, including organically-grown produce. It costs more to buy organic, but, if you can afford it, it is money well spent. There are many things people can do to control food costs while still consuming a health-promoting diet. When budgeting, most people separate medical costs from food costs. However, these two are linked. As one eats more nutritious foods, medical problems and costs can be mitigated or eliminated, thus reducing overall spending. And actually, for the typical family, an increase in food costs is not even necessary for improving the diet.

On the other hand, practise home gardening, a incredibly cheap alternative.What is stopping you from sowing one seed of bottle gourd in a pot in your balcony? Instead of growing aromatic plants, be different, encourage children to grow crops which serves your well being. For starters, you could try leaf lettuce, coriander, amaranth (dant sappu) brinjal, cucumber, green beans and few varieties of tomato plants. You will soon be supplying half to your the neighborhood. And there are many despite staying in apartments with small balconies succeed in growing their diverse food. (8)

As rightly said by Colin Todhunter in his article Rampant use of pesticides. Slow death, fast profits. “If someone was standing in front of you threatening your life or the lives of your children, wouldn’t you take action? There’s no difference between that situation and what the corporations are doing to your food”(9)

So wake up. Ban Pesticides.

Sources:
(1)http://www.blogger.com/postedit.g?blogID=1334801960335581453&postID=5567067974405648410
(2)http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060528/spectrum/main1.htm
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripening
(4)http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/PUBLICATIONS/HT/HC/2010/12/19/ArticleHtmls/Poisoned-guava-fruit-of-pesticide-overuse-19122010002011.shtml?Mode=1#
(5)http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/PUBLICATIONS/HT/HC/2011/02/03/ArticleHtmls/Toxic-fields-Pesticide-use-up-03022011002003.shtml?Mode=1
(6) http://www.tehelka.com/story_main45.asp?filename=Cr100710epidemicasp.
(7) Toxic pesticides linger in cereals and fruits - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Toxic-pesticides-linger-in-cereals-and-fruits/articleshow/7141746.cms#ixzz18p9T7gVk
(8)http://www.deccanherald.com/content/106491/slow-death-fast-profits.html
(9)http://geekgardener.in

Posted on 4th February 2011 by Sangita Sharma
http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/

Sowing Seeds of Consciousness

2011-01-25T09:03:00.000-08:00

Adopt a Seed, become a God parent to a Seed

India may have only 2.4 per cent of the world's area, but it has over eight per cent of the world's biodiversity, the third mega diversity region. The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources has collected 302348 accessions of crops of which 18, 862 are vegetable accessions only. In India there are 51,000 plant species and about 30% has been accessed so far. The rest 70% lies untapped.

Did you know that an estimated diversity of around 4,000 cultivars of bean and 7500 kinds of tomatoes exists? Sadly, we have access to only a few commercially grown vegetables so uniform, laced with pesticides, waxed with chemicals deceptively attractive. The loss of biological diversity, particularly in the "gene rich" countries of the Third World, undermines the very sense of sustainable agriculture, as it destroys choices for the future and robs people of a key resource base for survival.(1)

"Seed" the most unassuming potent gift of life that which is most sacred to me is under siege and assault. I have been consistently alerting and raising alarms about safeguarding traditional organic seeds. SEEDS THE KERNEL OF LIFE ITSELF, THE SOURCE OF OUR FOOD, WHEN CONTAMINATED, HAVE AN ADVERSE EFFECT ON OUR HEALTH AND THE HEALTH OF OUR PLANET. Resulting in a very sick society. Exactly, the state of affairs in our country! Devastating as it may sound but this is the hard core truth.

Seeds cannot be imprisoned by the yoke of legality to be patented by laboratories, to be modified or sterilized by transnationals or for that matter the property of a handful of corporations. Biodiversity is a planetary heritage, which is the fruit of the work of hundreds of generations of rural farmers. This heritage does not belong to anyone in particular: it is a legacy for the future. Seed embodies diversity. Seed embodies the freedom to stay alive. You will agree that “without seed integrity, food integrity is impossible”. And any hybridisation, or genetic manipulation of seeds will destroy our heritage of seed integrity that evolved through centuries...

“Seeds belong to no one it is a gift of life to life itself”. Going back to our Rig Vedas, women stood guard of a standing field, these guardians of the seeds were called Kalamgopis. Woman like the seed is the symbol of fertility. Harmony and balance prevailed in society due to sustainability. Soil is like an expectant mother into which all nourishing nutrients are carefully administered. Seeds are her children to be nurtured with care and devotion.

Unfortunately, the objective of the greed driven seed corporations have eroded this only to make farmers dependent on them. Each year farmers have to purchase sterile seeds along with their corresponding chemical fertilizers and pesticides at obnoxious costs. Mounting farmers’ debts and deaths is primarily the outcome of farmers having to adopt these intensive corrosive methods.

It may sound shocking but after 60 odd years of Independence, the monthly average income of a farmer remains a paltry sum of Rs 2200, far below the poverty line ( Source- NSSO). Yet, he is expected to purchase industry driven manipulated seeds, not replicable and that too at unaffordable costs. A chaprasi (clerk) in a government office is far better off than a farmer. He earns a sizable amount of Rs 10,000 with perks like medical, bonus, leave benefits, thanks to the sixth pay commission to quote Devinder Sharma. But the backbone of our economy - "the farmer who feeds this nation" is not considered worthy of any State benefit but expected to live off credits. No wonder the balance and harmony that once prevailed is at the brink of disaster.

Agriculture is no longer sustainable. With a faulty seed bill craftily designed to fill industry coffers, farmers are left with little choice but to walk away from their fields. Neither food security measures nor the overall health of the nation is of any consequence to policy makers. Who is to suffer apart from the ones producing it, consumers, of course!!!

Just recall... not so long ago, each day was an occasion to celebrate all built around nature. Festivals like shankranti, baisaki and more served aromatic produce healthily grown with home-made nutritional recipes. Tradition and grandeur followed by conforming to our wise ancestral heritage. Which is why chronic diseases were far and few in number! Primarily, because soil and traditional seeds were nurtured with so much care and devotion. Both the soil and seeds once rich in minerals and micro nutrients have fast disappeared, thanks to the dictats of the green revolution. The control of food chain now resting with a handful of seed giants and MNC's.

The result being each day is tagged with a disease like the World Cancer day, World Hypertension day, World Diabetic day, World Heart day, World BP day to name a few. Many more diseases unheard off are being unveiled with gusto by medical experts further encashed by the pharmaceutical industry. Masses of monies are spent on medical research to provide remedies/cures through advertising drugs supposedly to combat pain and suffering. The ground reality is that most drugs provide short term relief which in turn reduces immunities. It suppresses the disease only to accelerate the cause making it chronic because the food you eat is not giving you the required nutrition. By then, you are drugged for life. When the soil and seed is infected, the food is devoid of nutrition, worse still toxic, no worth in gold can then save you.

At gatherings, the medications that provide relief against minor and major ailments is the topic of discussion. Every second house i peer into has a cancer, diabetic patient. To a headache, cold or fever popping medicines like never before is the norm and doctor's verdict the ultimatum ( with no offense to genuine medical experts). Patience is no longer a virtue. It is appalling to witness the ease with which human beings surrender their bodies and make them readily available for trails as experimental guinea pigs. You choose to do this for you no longer have faith in yourself, nor the time to connect with your source, nor exercise any will to control your senses. As long as you sit quiet and pretty tight with no time to question the source of your food, prepare yourself to suffer a new outbreak of diseases.

But not all is lost. If Consumers and farmers are to take charge of their food chain, they have to be re-skilled to become farmer researchers, seed savers and breeders. In order to do so, we introduce an innovative approach for each one of us to become a seed guardian. Adopt a seed. Become a God parent to a seed variety. Now how interesting is this? We can sow seeds of consciousness amidst each other. An enterprising home gardener saves a seed in her balcony or kitchen garden and carries this message in her colony inviting all other friends to join in. Conserve a tomato variety ensuring its varietal purity, then deposit the seeds in central pool created. Thereon you create a network of seed growers from home gardeners to farmers. For instance if there are 20 traditional brinjals in your region each one can conserve a particular variety and make them available to many more…..that way you are responsible in securing food and conserving biodiversity.

Open-pollinated seeds are genetically diverse treasures that have been passed on from generation to generation. When you buy and plant open-pollinated seeds you are helping to protect your health, environment and conserve this valuable resource for the future. Join us in our endeavor.

If you are interested in taking charge of your food. “From Soil to Seed” workshops are conducted regularly. Write to us at - myrighttosafefood@gmail.com

Source
http://www.forum-ue.de/70.0.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=319&cHash=9e885db78f

Posted by Sangita Sharma at 10.50PM, 25th Jan 2011

Micro Finance companies make a killing from the rural poor

2010-12-05T21:09:00.000-08:00

MFIs: Profiteering from poverty

Excerpts exposed by Devinder Sharma's in his blog Ground Reality

"Dainik Jagran, the largest selling newspaper in India (it is in Hindi), has carried today (Nov 27, 2010) an interesting report that should serve as an eye-opener. It says that the Ministry of Finance had a couple of days back held a discussion on microcredit in which a document detailing the profits earned by the MFIs was placed before the members. The details are shocking, and show how the MFIs have been extracting their pound of flesh in the name of poverty eradication.

An analysis of 13 major non-banking MFIs shows that the profits these firms accumulated by charging exorbitant interest from the poor borrowers had swelled from Rs 677.3 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 3776.93 crore in 2009-10. In other words, their profits had multiplied by 5.5 times over a period of two years. Since the MFIs have failed to expand the borrower base, it is quite evident that the profit increase is based on the interest amount they have managed to garner.

So while the poor took the fatal route to escape the humiliation that comes with coercive recovery of outstanding loans, the MFIs have made it rich. Bandhan Microfinance has broken all records. Its profits swelled by 34 times in two years. Some of the other players -- SKS Microfinance, Ujjivan Microfinance, BSS Microfinance, Share Microfinance, Sampada Safurti, and Grameen Financial -- have also managed to collect huge profits. Further investigations are on.

MFIs Interest Profit (in crore rupees)
2007-08 2009-10

SKS Micro finance 170.1 958.92
Bandhan 6.56 222.11

BSS 7.03 155.38
Share Microfinance 113.08 475.27

Grameen FS 82.65 327.35

Samdana Safurti 127.45 724.09

Ujjivan 36.37 372.89

(Note: Rs 1 crore=Rs 10 million)

The above chart is self-explanatory. It tells us how lucrative is the microfinance business. If you are foreign educated, and have lost your job in the wake of US recession, it is time to head home and set up an MFI. You can make money from the laudable objective of helping the poor. Many of the stalwarts in the MFI business have done it like this.

And don't worry, you will have a huge support from an equally indifferent educated from the middle class who would call it a 'win-win' situation. Many iNGOs, who also thrive on lending for the poor, would back you up to the hilt. Mainline economists are always there to justify such financial crimes.

You make your profits by sucking the blood of the poor. The resulting social cost would be picked up by the poor.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Norwegian film "Caught in the micro-debt" brings out the truth behind microfinance
All these months I have been telling you how microfinance kills the poor. But somehow I still find that many of the policy makers and planners are still sold to the flawed concept, and some genuinely believe that micro-credit actually helps the poorest of the poor. They (and this includes the Reserve Bank of India as well as the Finance Ministry) are reluctant to initiate any action that may pull down the shutter on something that I have always regarded as a crime.

What is however heartening to observe is that many concerned citizens across the globe have begun to see through the pernicious design, and have now started to question the very basis of the concept. An award-winning Danish documentary film maker, Tom Heinemann, has launched today his latest film "Caught in the micro-debt" (in Norwegian language). Premiered on the Norwegian State TV Channel NRK, the film is based on an investigation by Tom Heinemann who made 'several trips to Bangladesh, and talks with a number of international experts worldwide, shows that the Grameen Bank leads many poor women into a crippling debt spiral.'

You can watch the documentary at www.nrk.no/brennpunkt

The film also makes some serious allegations against Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, had transferred Tk 7 billion to Grameen Kalyan, which has nothing to do with micro-credit operations. More at: http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=180277&cid=2

According to a media statement: "The women pay about 30 per cent interest on loans, as they already have to start paying back after a week. The documentary tells the poor to harsh collection methods from Grameen Bank, which has received the entire 400 million in aid from Norway."

This film shatters the claims that were made by the microfinance institutes worldwide. I only wonder how could distinguished economists, academicians and policy makers eulogise the MFIs without first ascertaining the truth behind the flawed claims. Why didn't academicians at least warn the world? How could the World Bank/IMF and even the donors sink millions of dollars in such dirty enterprises? Why was the truth kept hidden?

Well, not only microfinance, the sordid truth behind the hyper claims being made by the biotechnology industry (and backed by the mainline scientists) has been kept under wraps by a corrupt regulatory regime. Pharmaceutical as well as the food processing industry have also managed to keep the stark truth remain hidden from public glare.There is something terribly going wrong with the people/institutions who are supposed to regulate the system to protect us.

The Norwegian Development Agency Norad, according to the press statement, had supported the Grameen Bank from 1986 to 1997 with a total of 400 million. Focal Point (the NRK programme that has brought this film) has gone through the entire archive of Norad, which has the Grameen Bank to make. Here it emerged that employees of NORAD in the early 1990's was concerned that the poor were trapped in a debt spiral.

In a memo from Norad 20 December 1993 states the following:

"In fact, according to a survey done by David Gibbons and Helen Todd of the 40 women with 10 years of membership (of Grameen Bank), had almost all borrowed privately to pay installments."

And in another note from Norad 1 June 1994 states the following:

"One of the matters which the report points out is that the credit concept as it has evolved, created fertile ground for a practice in which new loans can be used to repay current loans. This may help to explain the impressive repayment statistics as Grameen Bank operates. "

This only goes on to show that even as far as 1993-94 it was known that microfinance was not working. The film then goes on to quote a small borrower, Hazera: "I have had loans from Grameen Bank for 15 years, and I paid my installments on time. At one point I got problems with your refund. The staff of Grameen Bank came and called me names. They threatened me with selling panels from the house. If I did not pay, they would throw me on the street. They said many nasty things to me. I was scared and sold everything I owned and paid installment. The house will collapse. There are holes in the roof. I have no one in the world."

This is nothing but Goonda Raj.

Posted By Devinder Sharma to Ground Reality at 11/30/2010 09:04:00 PM

Last date to register for THE THIRD BIENNIAL CONVENTION 2010 (ANAND, GUJARAT)

2010-11-29T05:14:00.000-08:00

ANNOUNCING THE ORGANIC FARMING ASSOCIATION’S THIRD BIENNIAL CONVENTION 2010 (ANAND, GUJARAT)
DATES: 15-17 December (Wednesday to Friday)
Inaugural Session: 15 December 2010 @ 9.30 am.
Closure of the Convention: 17 December 2010 @ 4.30 pm

VENUE:
Bhaikaka Krishi Kendra,
Ravipura [Anand-Sojitra Road],
District Anand, Gujarat.
(Phone: 02692-281664. Use only from December 14-17, 2010)

The Organic Farming Association of India (OFAI) organises its convention of organic farmers every two years in a different State. This year’s convention is scheduled to be held near Anand, Gujarat. Earlier conventions were held in Wardha (Maharashtra) in 2006 and Trichy (Tamilnadu) in 2008.

The venue for the 2010 event is the outstandingly successful biodynamic farm of OFAI President Shri Sarvdaman and Mina Patel. OFAI is grateful to this wonderful couple for agreeing to host the TBC 2010 despite all the inconvenience it may cause them.
The convention will be limited to 670 persons, on a first-come, first served basis. All OFAI State Secretariats have been allowed quotas for participation. OFAI members will get priority for registering.

The theme of the TBC 2010 is “Cool Farming for a Hot Planet,” reflecting the widely held conviction that organic farming not only eliminates or minimises contributions to green house gases from agriculture (when contrasted with chemical agriculture), but also actively helps in keeping more carbon in the soil.

Three eminent guest speakers have been booked for the three days of the event. The first day’s eminent speaker will be Dr O.P. Rupela, former ICRISAT scientist who has endeared himself to the organic farming community by undertaking research that conclusively proves the efficiency of organic farming when compared with other methods. A scientist having total faith in organic farming, Dr Rupela will represent the scientific community.
Shri Prakash Raghuvanshi, the outstanding practising farmer from near Varanasi in UP who has revolutionised the propagation and dramatic improvement of indigenous seeds through ingenious seed selection processes, will share his expertise and seeds on the second day. Greatly admired by the farming community for his generosity in sharing his seeds and expertise, Shri Raghuvansi will represent the farming community.
On the third day, Shri Umendra Dutt, activist mobilising Punjab and Haryana farmers against green revolution technologies and fiercesome agitator and campaigner against GM seeds, will address the valedictory. He will represent the activist community working on farming issues.
Also invited to speak at the valedictory is Shri Kartikeya Sarabhai, founder of the Centre for Environment Education, the NGO which organised the series of public hearings on Bt brinjal. Sarabhai has always been committed to green farming and green development. Since the Convention is located this year in Gujarat, it was thought the event would benefit greatly from his association, presence, experience and advice.

AIMS OF THE BIENNIAL CONVENTION:
1) To understand and discuss the importance of organic farming within the overall perspective of climate change challenges.
2) To learn from each others’ organic farming experiences and methods.
3) To develop and strengthen feelings of solidarity within the organic movement at the national level.
MORE DETAILS OF THE VENUE:
Bhaikaka Krishi Kendra – the venue for the event – is one of the best organic-biodynamic farms in the country and a wonder to behold. The farm is owned and personally managed by Sarvdaman Patel who is also President of OFAI. The farm has been growing various crops including fruits, vegetables, cereals and pulses organically since 2000.
Visitors will get to see a complete nutrient cycle in operation including biomass production, animal husbandry and dairy, compost, mulching, multilayer cropping, etc. Rainwater hardly runs out of the farm. Sarvdaman himself is an agronomy expert. He also runs a farm shop. Internationally known biodynamic expert Peter Proctor has organized many training courses on this farm. That his farm will become the venue of the convention is a matter of pride and joy to the organic farming community of India.
PROGRAMMES DURING THE CONVENTION:
Besides the main focus speeches on organic farming and its role in mitigating the problems caused by climate change, the following programmes are also scheduled for the benefit of participants:
* Useful seeds for organic farming * Crop selection & planning * Water management in organic farming * Soil science & nutrition management * Natural plant protection * Experiences of organic farmers * Experiences of scientists & activists * Lectures & questions and answers * Demonstrations of soil, water & plant protection measures * Exhibition * Literature and books on organic farming * Songs from Vinay-Charul (Loknad) * Films-silde shows * Cultural programmes
Participating in this event would therefore be the experience of a life time.
EXHIBITIONS:
All bookings relating to exhibition space should be done by 1.11.2010 through Jatan. It is subject to terms and conditions and through prescribed form only.

1. For Farmers & NGOs: Posters, farm produce, books, state-wise presentation. No costs for stalls.

2. For Commercial Groups: Input products & dealers promoting their products (subject to terms and conditions provided in the registration form). No display of GM products will be allowed. Likewise, all items promoting chemical fertilizers and synthetic pesticides will not be permitted. One-time minimum charge of Rs.5,000 per stall.
INSTRUCTIONS AND REQUESTS FROM THE ORGANIZERS:
Please keep the following in mind to help us organize and manage this national level event to the satisfaction of all parties:
1. Get yourself registered in time and don't expect special exemptions / exceptions. No registration will be possible after the due date. It is absolutely essential to send all your registration dues to the respective offices before 20 November 2010. Registrations will be closed as the total capacity gets booked up. Please bear with this reality. No registration fees will be accepted at the event venue. Food coupons will not be sold at the counter.
2. Upon receiving the application and due amount, the participant will be sent a receipt along with a registration confirmation letter (with important instructions and registration number) before 1st December, 2010. Participants need to show this letter at the registration counter.
3. As OFAI has no commercial interests, no sponsorship or conditional donations will be accepted for this convention. All are welcome to support unconditionally and whole heartedly. By paying the registration fees you help this event to be financially independent. Your support in the form of an additional amount above the minimum registration fee or a donation will be highly appreciated.
4. If financial constraints are a hindrance to your participation in this event, please inform your state secretariat or OFAI. The association will try and ensure that you can participate if you are unable to raise your own resources.
5. Arrangements being made for stay, food and meetings will be simple, like at a common farmer's home. The whole event is organized on a organic farm in tents. The food will be organic as much possible. Although bedding will be provided, you are requested to bring personal lightweight pullover and bed sheets as it might be cold.
6. Those wishing to present their experiences in orally or through demonstrations MUST submit their papers, write-ups, presentations, demonstration requirements before 1st Nov., 2010. Since this is a national event, please cooperate with us to facilitate translation. Earlier experiences have taught us that late submissions always lead to farmers being dissatisfied.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:
Volunteers are solicited and welcome. The whole event is being organized totally through people's participation. Sixty to seventy volunteers will be needed to manage various different tasks like managing the kitchen & dining, residential arrangements, managing the auditorium, looking after the guests, running the registration office, the exhibition, photography, videography, computers, audio-visuals systems and so on. Discipline and an ability to carry out tasks until the results are achieved even in adverse situations are both necessary. Skillful and willing volunteers may kindly inform of their availability in advance and make this event their own. Volunteers are also requested to register by paying the necessary fees.
REGISTRATION PROCESS:
Registration begins on 15 September, 2010. First preference will be given to OFAI members. Please quote your OFAI ID number when registering. No spot registration will be allowed at the venue on convention days. Limited numbers of participants allowed since the venue is a farm. Registration closes 20 November, 2010. No admission at the gate will be permitted.
Participants must plan to arrive on 14th evening or early 15th morning either at Anand or Vadodara.
Registration fee for the Convention is Rs. 500/- to Rs.1000/- for farmers (pay according to ability) and Rs. 1000 to Rs.2000/- for non farmers [NGOs/Promoters, Scientists, Students, others]. Fee includes food and accommodation. Those small and marginal farmers who need sponsorship/concession may contact their respective OFAI Secretariats.
REGISTRATION FOR PARTICIPANTS FROM OUTSIDE GUJARAT:
First fill the registration form (to indicate category of participant). There is only one form for all the categories.
Send both form and fees to:
Central Secretariat,OFAI, G-8, St Britto’s Apartments, Feira Alta, Mapusa 403507 Goa. For registration at OFAI-CS, send amount by Money Order payable to “Organic Farming Association of India” at Mapusa P.O. PIN 403507 with name and contact details [postal address, email ID and phone number] to reach by 20 November, 2010 latest.
REGISTRATION FOR PARTICIPANTS FROM GUJARAT:
First fill the registration form (to indicate category of participant). There is only one form for all the categories.
Send both form and fees to:
‘Satvik’, 26, Banker’s Colony, Near Jubilee Ground, Bhuj: 370 001, Dist: Kutch Ph: 02832-254872, Fax: 02832-251914 Email : satvik.india@gmail.com
DD should be in favour of “Jatan”, payable at Vadodara. However, the DD should be sent to the Satvik address at Bhuj.
M.O. should be in favour of “Satvik”.
Cheques will not be accepted.
Special accommodation and registration charges:
Those who wish to avail of their own accommodation in guest houses/hotels nearby may do so themselves. But there will be no concession for registration fees in such cases.
We are repeating: registration will be on first-come, first-served basis. OFAI members will have priority.
NOTE FOR PRESENTERS:
It is important that all presenters take pains to utilise the services of Jatan and OFAI for translation of their presentations. Any write-ups that are being used even during oral presentations should be translated into other languages. All papers for translation should be sent either to Jatan or OFAI by 1.11.2010.
Gujarati language:
Contact: Jatan
Vinoba Ashram, Gotri,
Vadodara-390 021
Ph : 0265-2371429
Fax : 0265-2372593
Email : jatantrust@gmail.com
All other languages:
OFAI Secretariat,
G-8, St. Brittio’s Apartments,
Feira Alta, Mapusa, Goa-403 507
Ph : 0832-2255913
Fax : 0832-2263305
Email : myofai@gmail.com

LIVE DEMONSTRATIONS :
The Bhaikaka farm is offering space for any organic farmer who wishes to have live demonstrations of his techniques or cropping practices during the convention days. Individual plots of 10 x 8 sq.feet are being prepared. Any planting and also number of plots required to be done must be intimated to Jatan by 15.10.2010.
People wanting to carry out these live demos should also mention material requirements in details before 15th October.
TOUR OF GUJARAT:
For those who wish to visit historic places and organic farms in Gujarat, there are two programmes being organised by Jatan:
a) One day tour on 14th December, 2010. Start at 9.00 a.m. from Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad. Visit to Sabarmati Ashram, Sardar Patel Bio-Dynamic Farm, Akshardham, Gandhinagar, end at event venue by the evening on 14th. (Advance to be paid: Rs.250. These should be included with the registration fees sent to the respective registering office.) For this tour, you must arrive in Ahmedabad in time and report for the tour on 14th morning at 9.00 AM at Gujarat Vidyapeeth.
b) Three day tour from 18-20 December, 2010. Start by evening of 17th soon after the closure of the event, from the event place. Visit to Dwarika, Porbander, Somnath, Wheat Research Station-Lokbharti, Panchvatibaug Farm and will end at the traditional food festival of Shristi, Ahmedabad on 20th evening. (Advance to be paid: Rs.1200. This should be included with the registration fees sent to the respective registering office.)
The advance charged is not the complete cost of the tours. The actual cost will be pooled together and divided among the participants of the tour after the tour programme. Tour expenses will include travel, meals and accommodation. Cancellation charge will be 50% of the advance.

TRAIN TICKET BOOKINGS: WARNING
The nearest railway stations to the venue are ANAND and VADODARA [one hour journey by road]. Please arrange to arrive by 14 December, 2010, evening
This is to bring to your urgent attention that all participants to the Convention travelling from outside Gujarat .will need to book their train tickets starting 13 or 14 September, 2010 [90 days in advance].
Please note that reservations for train travel to Gujarat are difficult to get at any time of the year. We have noted that tickets reach the "Wait List" on the very first day when the booking open. Tickets for travel up to the first week of December are already on Wait List. The reservations open exactly 90 days prior to the date and time of the train’s departure from the railway station of origin of the train [not your boarding station]. So if your train journey begins on 13 December, 2010, check the date and time when the train starts at the point of origin and get your online reservation from home, agent or railway station done at that time on 14 September, 2010 [since October has 31 days]. Please confirm the details of your train now.
If you want to participate in either of the two proposed tours, plan your train bookings accordingly.
For further details see www.ofai.org in the coming days and read the OFAI newsletter “The Living Field” or “Shashya Shyamala”. For urgent information of any kind, call: 0832-2255913 (during office hours) or email: myofai@gmail.com

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?268068

Our Food, Our Farmers - Let's support Kisan Swaraj Yatra

2010-11-24T03:09:00.000-08:00

Today, the food that we eat and the farmers who grow our food are both in crisis. Food freedom lies in the hands of each one of us. So, if you wish for safe quality food come forward to support the Kisan Swaraj Yatra.

The Kisan Swaraj Yatra which left Gujarat on Oct 2nd has already made its way through 6 states to Tamil Nadu. I just signed their online petition to support their efforts on behalf of Indian farmers.

Thousands of people around India are joining the Yatra to mobilize support for the farmers who grow our food, and to address the crisis of our agriculture and food systems which is affecting the farmers' livelihoods, the environment and everyone's health. This bus Yatra started at Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat on Oct 2nd and is traveling through 20 states to reach Delhi on Dec 11th – involving lakhs of farmers, farm workers, social activists, students and urban consumers.

Please join me in signing this petition, and in writing to all your friends and family to join the cause:

http://www.kisanswaraj.in/petition2/

We all need to force the government to take a new approach to agriculture that ensures dignified livelihoods for the farmers and promotes sustainable farming. What is refreshing is that the Kisan Swaraj Yatra doesn’t see the problems of agriculture as just those of a distant farmer community in rural India, but as intimately connected to all of us as citizens and consumers. It is a question of the livelihoods of 700 million people; it is also a question of sustaining our health and environment.

In solidarity

Sangita Sharma
http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/

The ugly underbelly of Microfinance

2010-10-17T22:16:00.000-07:00

THE Microfinance Institutes (MFI) are the shaninighans of today, treacherously exploiting the rural in the name of extending financial services to reach millions of poor. Rather, they tighten the noose round the neck by strangulating them. For over six months Devinder Sharma has been exposing these MFI prankters and finally the media has woken up to it. Last week, Andhra Pradesh proposed an Ordinance to curb the malpractices that have become synonymous with MFI's forcing a large number of rural poor to take their own lives.

When i started to understand the logistics of MFI's and the articles exposing the creditanials of such MFI's I recieved flak and accusations from corporate associates who vociferously told me to correct my facts. Disgusting but true but these new age baniyas have ammassed a wealth of over 5000 crores, all by craftily robbing the poor!

Read on

The ugly underbelly of Microfinance by Roli Srivastava, Swati Bharadwaj-Chand & Partha Sinha, TNN, Oct 18, 2010, 05.07am IST

SKS Microfinance, India's largest microfinance player, arrived with a bang with its hugely successful IPO in August. However, the recent sacking of its MD and CEO Suresh Gurumani has opened up a pandora's box that is now threatening to expose the ugly underbelly of the sector which, many allege, is teeming with players who are no better than moneylenders but have so far been able to operate under the pious garb of poverty eradicators.

TOI spoke to a cross-section of people associated with the sector and found that most are of the opinion that far from pursuing their socalled vision of eradicating poverty and being poor-friendly , private MFIs are actually in it just for profiteering as they are lending to the poor at interest rates as steep as those charged by moneylenders, or 'Pathaani Vyaaj' , a sobriquet derived from the ruthless moneylenders of Afghan origin who operated during the early 20th century.

Those familiar with the functioning of MFIs point out that the lending model of for-profit MFIs is not exactly pro-poor . While offering a loan, they often quote a "10% flat" rate of interest, which, on the face of it, appears like a good deal. However, there is a catch. This 'flat' rate of interest means that it will not be calculated on reducing balance. It implies that even after the borrower has paid a few installments, the interest would still be calculated on the initial sum borrowed, and not on the balance loan amount. The result is a (hidden) final rate of interest of 24-30 %, or even higher for the poor who can barely afford a square meal a day. "Microfinance, as practised by MFIs is unethical to the extent that it evades the truth in lending," said R Balakrishnan, a financial market veteran turned independent adviser . The high rate of interest is also leading to defaults and fraud. Recently , there has been a spurt in suicides in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, allegedly due to harassment by MFI agents who started resorting to strong-arm tactics to recover loans as chances of default rise. M Subba Rao, of NGO Masses, who trained under Grameen Bank founder and Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh, describes the cases of alleged harassment by MFIs as the result of 'irresponsible lending' . "There is high pressure on the staff (of private MFIs) to lend. They have targets to meet and they dump money (on people)," said Rao.

Consider this: The loan outstanding , according to the latest estimate by Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), the organization of 40 MFIs, is about Rs 30,000 crore with about 3 crore poor banking on MFIs for their financial needs. While the four southern states of AP, Tamil Nadu , Karnataka and Kerala account for a chunk of this borrowing, West Bengal and Orissa too have rural poor relying on MFIs. Besides, the sector is also on an uptick in UP and Haryana.

SKS Microfinance founder and chairman, Vikram Akula, is at great pains to ensure that everything is above board in the company. And more so due to the bad publicity the company got after its board sacked Gurumani. "We believe there is a right way to do microfinance and we have been practising it over the past 13 years with not a single case of unethical practice against us." The company, Akula said, clearly communicates to the borrowers that though the loan was at a flat rate of 12.5%, it effectively works out to over 26% because there is an "extraordinarily high cost of doing microfinance" . Since most of its lenders don't understand rate of interest, SKS' agents communicate to its borrower how much they have to pay in terms of rupees per week.

Akula, whose company is the largest MFI in the country with over 73 lakh customers, also denies the possibility of its staff using strongarm tactics or misleading borrowers . Instead, he blames the bad name that the sector is getting to new MFIs jumping into the fray sensing a lucrative business.

Of course, eradicating poverty through the MFI route, for some, is a lucrative business. The IPO document by SKS disclosed that Gurumani was drawing an annual salary of Rs 1.5 crore, an equal amount or more as performance bonus, and also a one-time bonus of Rs 1 crore. Akula is entitled to up to 1% of SKS's net profit, in addition to ESOPs.

Not surprisingly the 'success' of some of the MFIs and the mega-listing of SKS recently have stunned even seasoned bankers. When asked about the success of the MFI business in India, during a recent interview with TOI, SBI chairman O P Bhatt said even he was surprised by their numbers. He wanted to go deeper into their finances and business model to understand how MFIs, which borrow from banks including SBI, can make profits which these very banks can't make. After all, like mobile tariff plans, no financial product is protected by patents and IPRs and the uniqueness of any new and lucrative one cannot last for more than 24 hours.

The problem seems to be with the business model, and not the approach . In India, there are three kinds of MFIs: The government-supported self-help groups, non-profit NGOs and the private for-profit firms. While private MFIs say that the smaller entities have earned the sector a bad name, social workers and industry veterans at the grassroots say that bigger players with bigger targets have led to such incidents. In many instances, multiple MFIs lend to the same clients, resulting in repayment problems and eventually to defaults.

'MFIs have lost ethical values'

ANABARD-funded study says Vijay Mahajan's Basix Microfinance — with funding from Ford Foundation , Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and Sri Ratan Tata Trust — became the first MFI with a 'forprofit model' not only in AP but also India.

Industry observers point to a trend: Register a company under Section 25 of Companies Act, 1956 as a not-forprofit entity, use grants — local as well as foreign — and do social lending to build a book, buy an NBFC (preferably a dormant one), do a reverse merger and become a for-profit MFI. Says the head of a financial services company : "The problem starts when shareholders of forprofit companies put pressure for return."

Read more: The ugly underbelly of Microfinance - The Times of India http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/The-ugly-underbelly-of-Microfinance/articleshow/6766589.cms#ixzz12gP3qm8A

Feedback "FROM SOIL TO SEED", a workshop recently conducted by Annadana Soil and Seed Savers

2010-10-14T07:31:00.000-07:00

"From Soil to Seed" a three day sustainable agriculture workshop recently conducted by Annadana Soil and Seed Savers, had participants from all walks. It was interesting to witness the diverse range of professionals from doctor, scientist, engineers, IT experts, NGO's, journalist, marginal farmers and home maker come together to understand the source of their food and take charge of it. Enthusiastic participants came from Earth Trust, Ooty, to partake in it. Also, participants from the previous workshop attended to gain know-how in seed saving techniques, a skill being revived as its fast being lost.

The most significant highlight was Nature bestowing pleasant weather on all three days. Thus permitting the new age green guardians to be armed with knowledge. A few days prior to workshop continuous heavy downpours made the fields, pathways between raised beds most slippery and wet. It was uncertain whether the workshop would happen after all. Perhaps the charged energies of these eager participants was heard vividly by the universe. Soon after, to open the bottled floodgates of rain once the show had concluded. This rain was a welcome treat to cool the thirsty soil and overcharged minds....

Batch of Oct 2010 were all geared to observe, absorb, soil hands in making their own compost, making vegetable raised beds, nurseries, sowing, transplanting and saving seeds. The interactive course conducted by Annadana's senior agriculture technical expert Sasi Kumar was very well received. The ground work to establish all systems in place in field as in course material for learning was steered by the dedicated efforts of John Paul, an agriculture expert in charge of Ishana Farms, assisted by Pavithra Prasan, a young biotechnologist. Every now and again after a session, I would have a participant complement the outstanding organising capabilities of practical training material made available on field. Having been through many training workshops in agriculture myself, theory always over powered practicals. Hence, a conscious decision was taken to overcome this. The workshop programme was designed in such a way - half hour theory on each topic, re-instated by half hour film followed by a interactive hands on field practice until the technique was mastered.

To make such a workshop happen, one can only compliment the backbreaking efforts put in by this lovely spirited team. For the last three months both John Paul and Pavithra armed by an array of committed farmers have been prepared the field to facilitate the practicals for the participants. Which is why language has never been a barrier as these interactive practical sessions unravels each step. Images above is just a peek at the action.

The pouring compliments after the workshop especially the hands on approach in field were truly gratifying. Twenty five more trained to safeguard bio-diversity....hope this pace moves faster! The constructive feedback received from participants and well wishers of biodiversity is pasted below.

In solidarity

Sangita Sharma

http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/

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Feedback from participants re workshop

From:
Date: 11 October 2010 5:57:11 PM GMT+05:30

Hello Sangita and Sasi

As is expected from you, the course conducted over the weekend was excellent. Thanks again for your initiative.

You may want to conduct one more quick 2 day course in November just to catch those who could not attend. I know for sure that about 4 to 5 students could not attend this course last weekend. There may be more also.

Also, I again offer Panchagavya and EM to whoever wants the same. When you get all the email IDs documented, please do let them know that I can provide the same.

Once again thanks for the wonderful course. This time, I hope that I will not take ANY more seeds from your bank, instead, I have already made plans to save my own seeds from the packs you have given and maybe even return some back to you for your bank. Let’s hope I can live up to this promise, I have Ravi Koushik and Rajesh Thakkar copied to this message as witnesses to this statement.

I am also going to do the seed saving course for the 2 batches of basic course students of our NGO, sometime in November. I hope Sangita will grace the workshop this time without fail.

Also, I have sent 6 packets of Annadana seeds for the OFAI conference, Sarvadman Patel wanted to plant them and showcase them at the event. Ravi Koushik is going to Sarvadman’s farm and work there in November and can report to us on the progress.

Thanks and With Best Regards

Girish
www.pristine-nature.com

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Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 8:17 AM

Dear Sangeetha/Sasi/John/Pavitra & Annadana Team,
1. The Soil to Seed workshop was very well structured, and absolutely well organized (thanks to endless coordination by Pavitra !)
2. This workshop was also hands-on, and very practical, instead of the general "theoritical" workshop programs
3. All the people assosciated with Annadana had that exceptional "glow" really showing their life in harmony with nature,people and everything
4. I also liked the passion people had with plants, trees and all organisms, instead of the western way of analysing plant behaviour from a botanical standpoint.
A few suggestions:
a) Given the fact that there are non-english participants from agricultural communities, it is better to atleast have a vernacular summary at the end of each session. We can get volunteers for this among the participants.
b) A brief allocated time for group interaction for exchanging experiences could be done at the end of morning and afternoon sessions
c)The third day on seed saving might be better with a bit of practicals
To all the participants:
It was wonderful meeting one and all of you, and without your dedicated and committed participation, all the sessions would not have been such fun. I am sure we shall be in constant touch, and keep sharing our experiences and enriching our knowledge..
Please convey my best regards to all the people on the ground like lakshmamma, ram charan and others....our deepest gratitude and love to all of them who actually make things work....and make the world better...
Wishing one and all the very best in all personal and professional endeavours,
Best Regards,
Ragu
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Sent : Wednesday, October 13, 2010 9:17 AM

From: "CS, Shobha" ,

Dear Sangita, Sasi and Annadana Team,
I echo Raghu's feedback. The training was concise, made as simple as one can get, enough scientific and practical.
Sasi's knowledge and his commitment to share what he knows is commendable. We felt the passion and hospitality in the entire Annadana team. It was not like going to a training institution and getting trained, it was like connecting with an extended family and learning.
Thanks to entire Annadana team for making it a great learning with joy. It was great to interact with all participants, would like to be in touch with all of you, and hear our experiences.
Regards,
Shobha

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Dear Sangita,

I was very happy to learn about the workshop. Feedback is highly satisfying and participants liked the 'hands on approach'. Hearty congratulations to the team at 'Annadana'. Keep up the good work.

Om Rupela

former Principal Scientist, ICRISAT

Plagiarism plagues India's genetically modified crops by Priya Shetty

2010-09-30T00:34:00.000-07:00

The finding that parts of an interacademy report on GM crops were plagiarized could spell the end of Bt brinjal.Ajay Verma/REUTERS/Corbis

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100929/full/news.2010.503.html
Published online 29 September 2010 | Nature |

Transgenic aubergine still banned after encouraging report is discredited.

Students hold a mock funeral procession against Bt (Bacillus thuringenesis) brinjal or genetically modified brinjal (a type of eggplant) crop in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh January 28, 2010The finding that parts of an interacademy report on GM crops were plagiarized could spell the end of Bt brinjal.Ajay Verma/REUTERS/Corbis

India's moratorium on genetically modified (GM) food crops is unlikely to be lifted after it emerged that key sections from a landmark report by six Indian science academies, which recommended that the country resume planting of GM food crops, had been plagiarized from an article in favour of such crops.

The environment ministry this week rejected the academies' report. The anti-GM-crops lobby has seized on the controversy, and Indian scientists fear that the episode has undermined the country's international scientific reputation.

Nandula Raghuram of the Society for Scientific Values, an ethics watchdog based in Delhi, says that what should have been a rigorous assessment by India's top scientific institutions has ended up as the mouthpiece of Ananda Kumar, a plant scientist who is director of the National Research Centre for Plant Biotechnology and a known proponent of GM crops.

The plagiarism "reflects the larger tragedy of Indian academies", says Raghuram, a molecular biologist at Indraprastha University in Delhi. The academies have "a total lack of social sensitivity, objectivity and public honesty", he says.

Devinder Sharma, chairman of the Delhi-based Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security, a group of scientists that is against GM crops, calls the entire report "a cut and paste exercise".

If the six top national academies have to go by what just one scientist says, "it clearly indicates how hollow and useless the science academies are," says Sharma. "Where is the scientific rigour that is expected from such 'distinguished' bodies?"

A statement signed on Tuesday by Mamannamama Vijayan, the president of the Indian National Science Academy — which coordinated the report — focused solely on the "inappropriateness" of copying text without citations, ignoring any accusations of a lack of scientific rigour. Vijayan told Nature that he is "very agitated that such a thing happened", but added that although the report will be reviewed, "it is very unlikely that the recommendations will change".

Indiscretion

In October 2009, India's Genetic Engineering Approval Committee gave the go-ahead to commercial planting of Bt brinjal, a variety of aubergine modified to produce a protein from the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) bacterium that is toxic to insect pests. But this February, after an outcry from farmers and activists, environment minister Jairam Ramesh put a moratorium on planting the vegetable, pending the interacademy assessment of its safety to human health and the environment.

“Where is the scientific rigour that is expected from such 'distinguished' bodies?”

The academies' report was released on 24 September. But, on the following day, the advocacy group Coalition for GM Free India pointed out that it contained text copied verbatim from two 2009 documents: Bt Brinjal: A Pioneering Push, written by Kumar for the magazine Biotech News, and The Development and Regulation of Bt Brinjal in India by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, a lobby group based in Ithaca, New York, and funded by biotechnology corporation Monsanto, headquartered in St Louis, Missouri. Kumar had also contributed to this second report.

The interacademy report and the Biotech News article both contain the lines: "Bt brinjal ... has been subjected to a rigorous biosafety regulatory process encompassing all aspects of toxicity, allergenicity, environmental safety, socio-economic assessment etc."

Kumar told Nature that the plagiarism was unintentional, and that he did not feel he had to reword statements of fact before submitting them for inclusion in the academies' report. Indian scientists contacted by Nature say that because Kumar contributed to all three reports, the plagiarism is more a matter of shoddy writing and lack of citation than of serious misconduct.

Govindarajan Padmanaban, a biochemist and former director of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, agrees. He says that the plagiarism is an "indiscretion rather than any deliberate misrepresentation of facts".

Starting again
Nevertheless, questions remain about the rigour of the interacademy report. Kumar says that the report's conclusion that Bt brinjal is safe is based largely on data analysed by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee last year — suggesting that a report commissioned to supplement the committee's scientific guidance is actually based on the committee's recommendations.

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Indeed, Ramesh seemed frustrated more that the report offered nothing new than by suggestions of misconduct. "My idea of referring the GM crops to academics was to get a view of the larger scientific community but not the view of one Ananda Kumar which I knew even before the moratorium was put on Bt brinjal," he told the Times of India this week.

India needs "transparent, scientific methods of assessing risks and benefits of GM crops", says Monkombu Swaminathan, an agricultural scientist often referred to as the father of India's green revolution for his role in developing high-yield varieties of wheat. He calls for "a regulatory authority that inspires public, political and media confidence".

Meanwhile, Sharma says that any confidence in the academies' report has evaporated. "This fake report should be shelved and the chiefs of the six top national academies sacked," he says.

Public opinion stopped GM, says campaigner

2010-09-29T23:43:00.000-07:00

Independent On Sunday
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/public-opinion-stopped-gm-says-campaigner-2089974.html

Global resistance has halted the biotech giants, reports Environment Editor Michael McCarthy from the IoS co-sponsored Sustainable Planet Forum

Sunday, 26 September 2010

The tide has turned globally against the introduction of genetically modified crops, Lord Melchett, the former director of Greenpeace and campaigner for organic farming and food, said yesterday.

Fifteen years ago, many governments thought GM crops and food would become the norm, but it has not happened because of rising public resistance around the world, and it will not happen, he said.

"This is a redundant technology and many people in Europe may be unaware of the extent of the resistance to GM in places like India and China, because they swallow the GM industry line that it is supported all across the world," he said. "I have to say that where we are now with GM leaves me feeling very optimistic."

Speaking at the Sustainable Planet forum in Lyon, France, he said GM technology, put forward by firms such as Monsanto, the US agribusiness giant and pesticide manufacturer, had achieved its initial success only "through secrecy", he said. Many aspects of it had been kept a secret from farmers and consumers, but once labelling of GM products began, public support collapsed. He cited the case of Monsanto's GM bovine growth hormone milk.

"America is where we're told GM is a huge success, and where everyone from farmers to consumers loves GM, but it's simply not true," he said. "If anybody tells you this, ask them, where is GM wheat? Monsanto had it ready to go but it was stopped by American farmers. Ask them, where is the GM version of alfalfa, the fourth most commonly grown crop in the world? American farmers went to court to stop it being commercialised," he told the conference, which is being co-sponsored by the French newspaper Libération, The Independent and La Repubblica from Italy.

Lord Melchett is now the policy director of the Soil Association, the organic farming and food campaigning body. An organic farmer himself, he has been one of Britain's most prominent anti-GM activists and in 1999, when head of Greenpeace, led a raid to trash a field of trial GM crops in Norfolk.

He and 27 other Greenpeace volunteers were arrested and charged with criminal damage, but acquitted by a jury after claiming that the damage they had prevented – potential contamination of non-GM crops by pollen from the GM trial – was greater than the damage they had caused.

In the Lyon forum yesterday, attended by thousands of people, Lord Melchett joined with a French anti-GM campaigner, Philippe Martin, to examine the question (perhaps reflecting French preoccupations) of whether it is possible now to have a menu with no GM items on it.

Mr Martin, a socialist MP and council leader from Le Gers, the south-western France department with the highest percentage of farmers in the country, began by saying there were four great existential questions: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? What's for dinner?

He said that, personally, he would not like a menu without confit de canard on it (his local regional speciality of preserved duck), but that was a matter of choice. He was concerned about cases where consumers might have no choice at all.

He hit out at the decision by the European Commission last July to authorise the import of six more GM strains of maize to be used for animal feed. Lord Melchett agreed, saying it was vital to label clearly milk and meat that came from animals fed on GM products. "There is a huge amount of GM soya fed to chickens, pigs and dairy cows, and you will eat it whether you want to or not," he said. "Simply to get these products labelled is a crucial battle."

Anti-GM demonstrators briefly disrupted a debate between two senior French politicians at yesterday's conference. They carried banners on to the stage at the Lyon opera house to protest against what they called the French government's "hypocritical" approach to genetically modified foods.

Their target was the senior French environment minister, Jean-Louis Borloo, who was debating with François Hollande, the former Socialist party leader, on whether green issues and mainstream politics were compatible. France has taken a restrictive attitude to GM foods in public, the demonstrators said, but quietly approved the planting of a score of GM plant varieties earlier this year.

Mr Borloo replied that France had done more than any other EU nation to slow the advance of GM and make certain that Brussels undertook scientific studies before giving approval for new products.

Ramesh trashes academies’ report on Bt brinjal

2010-09-27T09:22:00.001-07:00

Absolutely scandalous, leading science institutes hand in glove with GM industry. Consumers are blissfully unaware of such catastrophic decisions taken on their behalf re their foods. Check this link http://devinder-sharma.blogspot.com/2010/09/gutter-science-inter-academy-report-on.html "Gutter Science: Inter-Academy Report on GM Crops", sums it up starkly and crisply. In a shocking revelation "Six Indian science academies had earlier this week approved the limited release of GM brinjal for cultivation in a joint report that contained 60 lines of plagiarised text, a near verbatim reproduction of an article in a biotechnology advocacy newsletter which itself had lines extracted from an industry-supported publication" to quote the http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100927/jsp/nation/story_12986605.jsp

It turns out that important parts of the report have been copied from the reports from the industry and an article by a biased scientist.
India Today and a host of leading media unravel this below. Those interested, please find enclosed the academy report for reference.

Sangita Sharma

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Ramesh trashes academies’ report on Bt brinjal

NEW DELHI: Virtually trashing the report by six top academies which favoured “limited release” of genetically modified brinjal, the Environment Minister, Mr Jairam Ramesh today said it does not give a larger scientific view and focused only on findings o f a scientist.

Endorsing views of an advocacy group that alleged that the report was plagiarised, Mr Ramesh said, “I had asked the academics to give the broader scientific view. But it is nothing else but the views of one scientist (Anand Kumar) which I had already kno wn much before the moratorium was placed on the release of the Bt brinjal.”

Clearly unhappy over the report which he had sought from the country’s leading academic institutes, the Minister said, “I do not want the six top science academics to tell me Anand Kumar’s view. I already know that.”

Mr Ramesh, who had imposed moratorium on release of Bt brinjal on February 9 citing lack of consensus among various stakeholders, said, “I have not heard since then a single state government in the country wanting its revocation”.

“Even the most aggressive anti-NGO state in India, Gujarat, did not want Bt brinjal,” he added, making it clear that unless there is consensus on the issue in the society and states agree for its release, the moratorium on GM food will continue.”

The Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, National Academy of Medical Sciences and National Academy of Sciences (India) were asked by Mr Ramesh and Mr K Kasturirangan, Member, Planning Commission in March to submit a report on GM crops.

“It is appropriate now to release Bt Brinjal for cultivation in specific farmers’ fields in identified states,” said the report of the six science academies on Bt brinjal which was submitted to the Government recently.

However, levelling allegations of plagiarism against the academies, advocacy group ‘Coalition for GM Free India’ had said that the report was a biased, political position paper.

“Rather than a rigorous scientific review that it is supposed to be, it is absolutely scandalous that the six top science academies used plagiarised material in their attempt to promote Bt brinjal,” said Ms Kavita Kuruganti on behalf of the coalition.

According to the advocacy group, the academics had heavily relied on an article “Bt Brinjal: A Pioneering Push” in Biotech News — a publication of the Department of Biotechnology written by Kumar, a vocal supporter of Bt brinjal and developer of GM crops himself. - PTI
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http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/114057/India/Bt+brinjal:+Academies+copied+report.html

Bt brinjal: Academies copied report
India Today, New Delhi September 26, 2010

India's top science academies have done the unthinkable. They have copied and quoted extensively from an
industry lobby report to give a clean chit to the controversial genetically modified (GM) brinjal.
Key portions and data in the much touted Inter-Academy Report on Genetically Modified Crops have been
lifted straight from a report of a lobbying group funded by seed companies, including Monsanto and Mahyco.

In March, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had asked the six science academies - the Indian Academy of
Sciences, the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Indian National Science Academy, the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the National Academy of Medical Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences (India) - to give an unbiased scientific assessment on the feasibility of transgenic crops and the proposed regulatory mechanism for GM food. They submitted the report to Ramesh this week, recommending the commercial release of Bt brinjal.

But it turns out that the academies have relied heavily on data generated by USbased GM lobby International Service for the Acquisition of Agri- biotech Applications (ISAAA). They have recommended the commercial release of Bt brinjal and the lifting of the moratorium imposed on it by Ramesh.
Earlier, science and technology minister Prithviraj Chavan had plagiarised from reports by the same ISAAA in a letter to cabinet colleague A. Ramadoss while defending Bt brinjal. This was exposed by M AIL T ODAY in February this year.
The report in question currently has copied most of the data and information in support of Bt brinjal from an ISAAA report The Development and Regulation of Bt Brinjal in India and an article Bt Brinjal: A Pioneering Push by Dr P. Anand Kumar in Biotech News - a publication of the Department of Biotechnology.
Both were published in 2009. Being a developer of GM crops himself, Kumar is a vocal supporter of Bt brinjal.
The academies have declared Bt brinjal safe by copying the following paragraph verbatim from Dr Kumar's article: " Bt brinjal ' Event EE- 1' has been subjected to a rigorous biosafety regulatory process encompassing all aspects of toxicity, allergenicity, environmental safety, socio- economic assessment etc.
"Studies on food and feed safety have been conducted on rats, rabbits, fish, chickens, goats and cows. Similarly, environmental impact assessments to study germination, pollen flow, invasiveness, aggressiveness, weediness, and effect on non- target organisms were also carried out." The data that has been lifted from the industry
document relates to key issues.

The copied portion says: "It (brinjal) is an important cash crop for poor farmers who transplant it from nurseries at different times of the year to produce two or three crops, each of 150 to 180 days' duration."
Again, on losses caused by pests, an entire paragraph has been lifted from the ISAAA report: "Brinjal Shoot and Fruit Borer (BSFB) causes significant losses of up to 60 to 70 per cent in commercial plantings. Damage starts in the nursery, prior to transplanting, continues to harvest and is then carried- over to the next crop of brinjal. BSFB damages brinjal in two ways.

First, it infests young shoots during the vegetative phase, which limits the ability of plants to produce healthy fruitbearing shoots, thereby reducing potential yield."
Another piece of data used to justify Bt brinjal has been lifted from the industry report: "Farmers usually spray twice a week, applying 15 to 40 insecticide sprays, or more, in one season depending on infestation levels."
Figures relating to the financial cost of insecticide spray by farmers too come from the industry document. The similarities in the ISAAA report and the Inter-Academy report go on without anyone getting a hint about the source of the data. No references or citations have been given, as is normal with any scientific document.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/114057/India/Bt+brinjal:+Academies+copied+report.html

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NOTE: David Andow, the author of the new report, is Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Insect Ecology at the University of Minnesota, specialising in: ecological risk assessment of biological stressors, such as invasive species and GMOs; insect resistance management, gene flow and its consequences, and non-target species effects; and science policy associated with GMOs. He's also the Coordinator of the International Project on GMO Environmental Risk Assessment Methodologies (GMO ERA Project)

Bt brinjal unsafe, says new report
Indian Express, September 26 2010
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/bt-brinjal-unsafe-says-new-report/688153/2

New Delhi: After a period of lull, the debate over genetically modified crops, specifically the use of Bt brinjal, is suddenly heating up once again. A day after it became known that a report by six top science academies had recommended an immediate release of Bt brinjal, people opposed to GM crops on Saturday produced a counter report - from an American scientist - with diametrically opposite conclusions.

What is more, these people slammed the report by the six academies as being "shoddy" and "without sufficient arguments and supporting evidence", and went on to allege that parts of the report pertaining specifically to Bt brinjal had been plagiarised from an article by a GM-crop developer that had appeared in a biotechnology magazine in December last year. The author of the article in question, P Anand Kumar, a project director at the Delhi-based National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, rubbished the allegation.

“I happen to be a member of the National Academy of Sciences. I was asked to submit my inputs for the inter-academy report. I gave my views. Obviously, my views are the same that I had expressed in the magazine article. Where is the question of plagiarisation?” he asked.

The counter report has been authored by David Andow of the Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota, United States. It was released by Aruna Rodrigues, the lead petitioner in the Supreme Court case seeking a ban on genetically modified crops. Rodrigues claimed that Andow was an acknowledged international expert on the environmental risks of genetically engineered crop plants. She said she herself had asked the scientist to produce the report.

This report finds faults with the clearance granted to Bt brinjal by the Genetic Engineering Approval (now Appraisal) Committee (GEAC), India's top regulatory body on genetically modified products, in October last year. Anand Kumar happens to be a member of GEAC. The GEAC decision, however, was overturned by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh in February and the introduction of Bt brinjal had been put on hold.

The report by the American scientist says that the expert committee, on whose recommendation GEAC had given its clearance, had relied on “dubious scientific assumptions” and had either ignored or inadequately evaluated environmental concerns.

"The potential advantages of hybrid Bt brinjal seem marginal and uncertain for most Indian farmers, and the environmental risks (including socioeconomic risks) to Indian farmers and consumers remain very uncertain. Several significant environmental risks have not been considered and nearly all of the others have been inadequately considered," the report says.

The inter-academy report, however, had claimed that the safety of Bt brinjal for human consumption had been established "adequately and beyond reasonable doubt" and recommended that the limited release of Bt brinjal could be done almost immediately.

................................................................
Website: http://www.gmwatch.org

"From Soil to Seed" a 3 day Technical Workshop by Annadana

2010-09-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Annadana Soil and Seed Savers

Soil and seed are sacred to us. Ishana Farms, Bangalore welcomes you to join in conserving this delightful diversity of crops. Learn these simple integrated farming techniques successfully practiced for over a decade by Annadana and become hands on experts. Indulge in the delight of growing your own food. Annadana equip's you with sound technical know-how on Soil regeneration techniques from the preparation of organic growth promoters, compost making, mulching, bio extracts to seed sowing techniques followed by Seed Saving.

The details of three day training workshop FROM SOIL to SEED are as follow:

Date: 8th, 9th &10th Oct 2010

Time: 10am - 6pm

Venue: "Ishana", Gopathi Farms, Village Singapura, Post Vidyaranyapura, Bangalore - 560097.

For more information please contact - Pavitra Prasan, pavitra@annadana.com
Here is your chance take charge of your food as farming is no rocket science.

Absolute power comes from absolute control over food by Devinder Sharma

2010-09-20T08:40:00.000-07:00

Read below, this to me is no longer shocking. Consumers have been made docile by the refined processed and junk foods and so addicted to tastes. Because this is what processed foods are designed to do! This branded camouflaged toxic foods enters the bloodstream. No wonder the brains have become numb and slow to reacting nor able to resist.
Moreover, the lackadaisical approach is adding to the consumers worst nightmare which is fiercely unraveling its lethal tyrannical head.
Watch this link - http://bit.ly/bmCNfu.
World over, the processed food mafia only wants you addicted, so that they fill their greedy coffers. So much so, they adopt a dictatorship attitude over a handful of consciously awakened consumers who dare to stand up for themselves and for others, for what is their constitutional right to safe food.
This is gross injustice and appalling. Hope this never happens in India!
Wake up before it is the end of Choice and a Sad end to your Life in hospitals!!!
Sangita Sharma
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Ever since I was a child I have been drinking milk bought directly from a small dairy in my neighbourhood. When I moved to New Delhi, for some months I managed to get my direct supply of milk from a neighbourhood supplier. But soon, the buffalo-keeper moved out his animals under pressure from builders. This was almost two decades back, and since then I am left with little option but to buy processed milk.

However, there are millions in India who can afford to avoid intake of processed milk and I think they are the lucky ones. I wish I could still buy my daily requirement of milk from the small neighbourhood dairies that dot the outskirts of New Delhi, and elsewhere.

I was therefore shocked when I viewed the accompanying video on YouTube.

Police raiding an organic grocery shop in California.
http://bit.ly/bmCNfu

This is certainly outrageous. But this is a grim pointer to where the next battles would be fought. It is not water, as many people believe, but food that will be putting nations at war. You can clearly see, if you want to, where it is coming from. Multinational food giants have been slowly but steadily gaining control over food. They know that absolute control over food is the road to absolute power.

The process of takeover of food simultaneously began on several fronts. It began with Green Revolution in the late 1960s, which was essentially to provide controlled technology to increase farm production in developing countries. This was followed with Structural Adjustment Programme that the World Bank/IMF pushed seeking policy changes through the 150-odd conditionality's that came with every loan. To provide more teeth to the process, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have been brought in.

Technology is now controlled through the instruments of Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), and unhindered grain trade is made possible by the unjust obligations that developing countries have been made to accept under the so-called free trade paradigm. To complete the control over the entire food chain, the third actor in the game -- food retail -- is now being moved across the national borders. G-20 is pushing for compliance, asking member countries to streamline the norms that facilitate the entry of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Multi-Brand Retail.

Internationally, the food trio -- Monsanto/Syngenta as symbol of the technology providers; Cargill/ADM among the major food trading companies; and Wal-Mart and Tesco representing food retail -- have formed an unholy alliance They operate in unison, making the governments fall in line. Food laws are being changed everywhere across the globe to make it easy for the trio to operate. WTO is helping to push farmers out of agriculture thereby making it easier for these multinationals to march on. IPR laws are bringing the necessary changes in national laws in conformity with internationally designed parameters bringing private control over technology.

The process of takeover of food is now complete.

But there are still irritating impediment on the way to absolute control over food. Alert and conscious consumers are not giving up so easily, and they are gaining in strength. Even in the United States and Europe, more and more people are realising the dangers of processed foods, and silently moving away to organic foods. The annual market for organic foods is growing at a phenomenal 20 per cent. This has to be stopped. So the regulators are now working overtime to outlaw organic foods. The underlying objective is to limit your food choice. You will be left with no option but to buy what the food giants want you to buy. Hobson's choice, isn't it?

In the name of food safety, which is a misnomer, food laws are being changed. S 510 is one such law that the US is considering to bring in. One of the world's most corrupt body -- US FDA -- is at work. It is working overtime to outlaw organic food. The prescription is simple: GM food is what you should be eating, organic food is bad for your health. That's the best it can do. The police raid in an organic store in California therefore is just the beginning. You wait and watch. The day is not far when the police will enter your kitchen. In the name of Mendel in the Kitchen, Nina Fedoroff, presently science advisor to the Secretary of State, is working hard to police your kitchen.

There are some who realise the threat ahead. This is what someone wrote in the comments section of the YouTube: I go to my apt garbage bin and search out empty general mills cereal boxes and various gmo containers, wash them out and sterilize them and place my organic foodstuff inside because I don't want to be dragged down to jail. I can't afford a criminal record, to maintain my job.

I don't know what is happening to the United States. Whenever I see the Statue of Liberty I can't miss the tears in her eyes. Only the Americans refuse to see it. As my film-maker friend Ajay Kanchan often says: America is the country where civil liberties have been mortgaged to the multinationals. People live in virtual tyranny. I am in complete agreement. I can only feel sorry for fellow Americans. But I can assure you the world outside is waiting to help you, to pull you out of the police rule. Come, let us join hands. Let us try to regain our control over what we eat.

And if you still believe, the police is acting right. Read this letter (from someone with the user name 12dogpal): They did not ban the H1N1 virus infection at the factory pig farm in Mexico where the virus was released. The pork was still sold in the USA. They didn't close the Wright County Egg farm for poisoning the food supply, they didn't close Wal-Mart for passing out e.coli beef. They didn't stop the drug co's from putting out dangerous drugs, lets face it folks, your government is your worst enemy.

As Jawaharlal Nehru had said during the days of the British Raj: Freedom is in peril, defend it with all your might. Start by saying no to S 510. Remember, regaining control over our food is the ultimate satyagrah.

Posted By Devinder Sharma to Ground Reality at 9/20/2010 09:54:00 AM

New Food Rules - a right-to-food programme in Chhattisgarh

2010-09-12T10:06:00.000-07:00

The Chattisgarh food security model is indeed a flagship model and should definitely be replicated in each state of our country. Local production, local procurement and local distribution. It is so refreshing to read that saving seeds for the next season, a time tested technique is being revived. Farmers can feel the respite from the debt syndrome caused by the hounds the seed corporations. If the State government's were to buy locally what the farmers grows at a competitive price with the rest being retained by farmers as seeds or for self-consumption” not difficult, is it?

Concerted efforts by States can make this into a replicable viable model, if only corruption was brought well under control. Millions then could be saved from going to bed hungry or prevented from dying of starvation.

2nd September, Economic Times page 10.
New Food Rules
How will the proposed National Food Security Act impact livelihoods, cropping patterns and productivity? Chhattisgarh, which has been running a right-to-food programme for four years now, throws up some interesting answers, reports M Rajshekhar

IN ITS HEYDAY, KHOSLA MUST HAVE been a beautiful village, with fields as far as the eye can see and a pond around which its houses arrange themselves. Today, though, the houses are ageing, the pond is algaeflecked and the streets a mess after the rains. In one of those ageing houses, Ram Prasad Kurmi, a former sarpanch of the block in Chhattisgarh’s Janjgir-Champa district of which Khosla is a part, talks about another kind of change.
“In the old days, whenever the MP, MLA or local babus came to the village, people unloaded grievances on them —dissatisfaction with the ration shop, non-delivery of pension, missing doctors and teachers,” he says. “Today, they only ask for a second ration card.” Such a difference a ration card makes to the lives of the poor in Chhattisgarh.
For four years now, Chhattisgarh has been giving 35 kg of grain — comprising rice and wheat — a month at heavily subsidised rates to 3.6 million of its 4.4 million households. The ultra-poor pay Re 1 per kg, while the poor pay 2 per kg, against the market price of 12-17 a kg. The ration card is the document that enables this subsidised transfer.
This transfer of grain has come to mean many things to many people. It’s a stamp of food security. It’s a passport for choices they didn’t have earlier: to work on the fields or in industry, to grow subsistence crops or cash crops, to consume their produce or sell it in the market.
Chhattisgarh wasn’t the first state to roll out a near-universal food-security programme. Tamil Nadu was, in the nineties. However, Tamil Nadu is not a large producer of paddy, from which rice is derived; Chhattisgarh is. Hence, Tamil Nadu’s farmers could never be touched by the programme the way Chhattisgarh’s farmers are. Chhattisgarh not only diminishes the fear of hunger that sits at the heart of the livelihood strategy of the poor, it also assures farmers of a market for their produce.
The Chhattisgarh programme has come to impact the lives of everyone involved: the labourer, the small farmer, the large farmer, the middleman, the mandis and the government. Food security is just the starting point in Chhattisgarh. The myriad ways in which such a welfare programme touches lives and other aspects of the economy have shaped — and accelerated — several ongoing trends. These might well be replicated, in varying degrees, as and when the Centre rolls out a national food programme on similar lines.
There’s a drop in starvation numbers
A food-security programme is also a cashtransfer scheme. At the current price of
grain of 12-17 per kg, it would cost a Chhattisgarhi household 420-595 to buy 35 kg of grain from the market. Through the scheme, they pay 70. That’s a saving of
350-525 a month.
The scheme has created a safety net for the poor, says Yasna Singh, a PhD student at the London School of Economics, who recently finished her field work on the Satnami community in Meu village of Janjgir-Champa. “People are now eating two meals a day, which is a new experience for many of them.” Adds local right-to-food activist Vibhishan Patrey: “We don’t hear about starvation deaths anymore.”
Nutrition levels have improved, but only marginally. While the programme has protected people from a rise in prices of rice and wheat, it hasn’t insulated them from the price escalation in pulses and oilseeds. Says Samir Garg, advisor (Chhattisgarh) to the commissioners of the Supreme Court (food security): “My guess is we are stagnant on the nutrition front, the gains from the food security programme counter-balanced by inflation.”
The labourer is getting empowered…
For labourers, things are getting better, relatively speaking. Historically, labourers have worked in the fields for subsistence. Instead of money, they would take home grains. But with the public distribution system (PDS) assuring a minimum supply of grains, they would rather work for money than for food, which they can use to buy other staples or anything else. “In that sense, it confers freedom from village labour,” says J Jeyaranjan, director, Institute for Development Alternatives.
Reetika Khera, a development economist, says the agrarian economy across India is monetising. “There is a greater need for money and greater supply of it,” she says. This process has been accelerated by inflation. “Earlier, we could buy vegetables for one kg of paddy,” says Shiela Tandon, a resident of Meu. “Not anymore.”
In Tamil Nadu, the food-security programme accelerated a move towards work for money. Says Mr Jeyaranjan: “Agriculture, which was giving the household food and money, had to compete with other activities that provide only money.” In Chhattisgarh, labourers go to work in brick kilns and mines. Or, they migrate.
Says Sunil Kumar, the editor of Dainik Chhattisgarh, a Raipur-based daily: “Migration from the Janjgir-Champa district continues unabated.” A big reason for the continuing exodus is the lack of alternative employment opportunities in the village. In Chhattisgarh, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is corrupt and doesn’t inspire confidence among villagers — either in terms of providing work or paying on time. And so, it seems the pressure for landless labourers to migrate has not been reduced by greater food security at home.
…at the expense of the
small farmer
Labourers working less or migrating puts farmers, who depend on local and cheap labour, in a bind. Bharat Lal Sahu, a large farmer in Meu, says the scheme is making workers lazier. “Where I need 10 labourers, I get just two or three. And even they ask for 100 a day, against the 50 earlier.”
Labourers in Chhattisgarh, empowered by the all-around changes brought on by the food-security programme, now prefer to work for large farmers, for 120-130 a day. They are organising themselves for better bargaining power. In the Bastar block, they increasingly move around — and negotiate contracts — in groups. For instance, to transplant paddy in a farmer’s field over 10 days, in return for a consolidated sum.
More than the large farmer, it’s the small farmer who is being squeezed by these realignments. Take Kulu Ram Dewani, a farmer
with four other family members. A resident of Bastar block, he has one acre of land, on which he grows paddy.
On the one hand, his 35 kg entitlement lasts 15 days. So, he doesn’t dare sell most of his harvest. That means he doesn’t have much cash income. But his labour wants to be paid in cash. “I can’t compete against large farmers,” he says. “I can neither offer them (labourers) work for a large number of days nor accommodate so many people. And all I can pay is 50-60 a day.” But, in the new dispensation, that is not the ‘market rate’.
This experience might be different for farmers who rent land from larger farmers and give them part of the harvest, says PS Vijaya Shankar, co-founder of grassroots organisation Samaj Pragati Sahayog. “Mostly, the terms of contract are loaded heavily in favour of the landlord. If minimum assured consumption is provided through PDS, the share-cropper will have a greater incentive to cultivate cash crops.” They could take on higher risks and try their hand at earning more.
Paddy is becoming a commercial crop
Paddy, from which rice is derived, is big in Chhattisgarh. About 63% of its arable land is under paddy, which has historically been a subsistence crop. Of the paddy they grew, farmers would first think of seeds for next year, for self-consumption and for paying the farm labour. The surplus, if any, would be sold in the market. This is changing.
Now, the PDS gives them 35 kg of grain every month at a maximum of 2 per kg. For a five-member household, this will last about 15 days. What farming households are doing is retaining just enough from their harvest to make up the shortfall and selling the rest.
There’s also incentive for them to sell in the market. The minimum price Chhattisgarh pays for paddy has increased from 775 a quintal in 2007 to 1,080 in 2010. Further, the state government has committed to buying every kg of paddy put into the market by farmers. Explains Rajeev Jaiswal, joint director, Chhattisgarh’s food and civil supplies department: “We cannot cap procurement at 1.6 million tonnes (what the state needs to feed its PDS) because large farmers would find a way to sell their produce first. This would exclude the small farmer.”
However, acreage and production numbers, as put out by the state’s department of agriculture, indicate the farmer in Chhattisgarh is not shifting from other crops to paddy. In 2006-07, when the state started giving 35 kg of grain, its area under paddy was 3.8 million hectares. In 2009-10, this dropped to 3.5 million hectares. “Land under paddy has peaked,” says Jaiswal. “We will now see a move towards other crops.” Similarly, rice production has dropped marginally from 5 million tonnes to 4.95 million tonnes. But this is also a function of rainfall — just 30% of the cultivable land in Chhattisgarh is irrigated.
Other numbers, less hostage to environmental factors, suggest a pick up in commercial farming, led by paddy. Farmers are looking at agriculture differently. The offtake of seeds has increased from 128,000 quintals in 2006-07 to 319,000 quintals in 2008-09. Says Umashankar Banjare, a rural extension worker in the Pamgarh block: “In the past two to three years, established seeds like swarnadhaara (a high-yielding paddy variety) have been replaced by even higheryielding varieties.”
This trend is corroborated by RK Chandravanshi, deputy agriculture director, Department of Agriculture, Chhattisgarh, who says the area under high-yielding varieties climbed from 52% in 2004 to 62% in 2009. Similarly, agricultural credit has increased from 457 crore in 2006-07 to 931 crore in 2009-10.
While it wouldn’t be accurate to attribute these changes entirely to the food-security scheme, it’s likely that the arrival of the food-security scheme has accelerated these trends. It has given farmers the confidence that the government will buy all that they grow, thus improving their willingness to invest in the crop.
It’s possible that the availability of cheap food from the PDS could persuade medium and large farmers to diversify into cash crops. But, says Shankar: “Punjab shows that government procurement of rice and wheat is associated with a disappearance of all other crops and end of crop diversity.”
The grain mandis are losing relevance
Ten years ago, Chhattisgarh grew 4 million tonnes of paddy, of which the state government acquired 300,000 tonnes, or 7.5% of the produce. In 2009-10, it grew 7.6 million tonnes; of this, 4.4 million tonnes, or 58%, was procured by the state. Of the rest, says Jaiswal, the state government official: “Only about 500,000 tonnes went to the mandis, the rest being retained by farmers as seeds or for self-consumption.”
Chhattisgarh bypassed its mandis in paddy procurement, instead buying through cooperative societies and procurement centres at the village level. The mandis, though, are unaffected, as the societies have to pay a procurement tax, the revenues from which go to the mandis. However, says Rakesh Kumar Sahu, an accountant at the Akaltara Mandi: “Traders, especially those who don’t have milling operations, are being badly affected.”
State energy & funds are poured into this scheme Chhattisgarh has an expenditure budget
of about 25,000 crore, half of which comes from the Centre. From its portion
of 12,000 crore, the state spends about 1,600 crore — or 13.3% — on the foodsecurity scheme. By virtue of becoming the state’s flagship programme, it gets disproportionate attention from administrators. “Collectors start their meetings by asking about the PDS,” says Samir Garg, advisor (Chhattisgarh) to the commissioners of the Supreme Court (food security). “The same level of attention and funding is yet to be given to other welfare programmes.”
In the various forms it is being debated, the proposed national Food Security Act will cost the Central government 80,000-90,000 crore. So far, much of the discourse has centred on who should get the subsidised grains, how much and at what price. Chhattisgarh is throwing up broader issues that also need to be factored into the ongoing discussion.

The Labourer
When we met her, Sanita Kadha was working in a relative’s field. For her efforts that day, she would be paid Rs 60 — a good jump over Rs 20-30 two years ago. Large farmers in this part of Bastar have been shifting from paddy to corn and other cash crops. Between that and NREGS, work is easier to come by. And the food programme helps

The Big Farmer
Ten years ago, Golchand Nayak did something different. On his 25 acres of land in Bastar, he stopped growing paddy. “It was difficult to get labour during the growing season, as most labourers were occupied on their own small tracts,” he says. He now plants tomatoes and cucumbers in November, uses groundwater for irrigation, and farms till the end of August.

The Small Farmer
Unlike Kadha and Nayak, small farmers like Kulu Ram Dewani are struggling. He grows paddy on his one acre of land, but sells none of it. His family’s 35 kg PDS entitlement finishes in 15 days and he needs his harvest. Other things complicate his life. Labour is getting costlier and wants to be paid in cash, but he doesn’t have an income and doesn’t get loans.

State Reaps A Rich Harvest
Since Chhattisgarh began its food programme in 2006, agri-credit has grown at twice the rate it did in the last five-year block. And rice production is expected to see a spike this year.

Health: Fat is a financial issue by Andrew Jack

2010-09-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

Wide world: public bodies are responding to a global obesity epidemic with campaigns such as US first lady Michelle Obama’s Lets Move, inspired by concern about her own daughters

As New York officials mark the first anniversary of an aggressive health campaign called “Don’t drink yourself fat” by stepping up their advertising, one group is not offering its congratulations: the soft drinks industry.

The posters and videos released by the city’s health department portray images of a man opening a fizzy drink and swallowing orange fatty goo. “When did Big Apple become Big Brother?” retaliates the Center for Consumer Freedom, a business-funded lobby group.

New York’s action is among the escalating initiatives being taken by public bodies in the US and around the world, driven by an increasing international recognition of the need to tackle one of the world’s most troubling ill-health trends: obesity.

The efforts raise the question of which approaches work best – and how far the food and drinks industry, long part of the problem, can become part of the solution, particularly at a time when economic slowdown is threatening government spending on such programmes.

The intensified action may yet trigger a new round of more aggressive regulatory controls affecting industry, just as employers feel the squeeze of rising healthcare costs and falling productivity linked to more obese staff.

The public policy response could also lead to a much wider use of the most drastic solution, for those willing to submit to it: surgery. In the UK – where on current trends obesity is forecast to cost the National Health Service nearly £50bn ($77bn) a year by 2050 – John Black, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, on Wednesday called for gastric bands to be fitted to many more people than the current annual 3,600. If just one in four who met the clinical criteria were to undergo the procedure, the net gain to the economy within three years would be an estimated £1.3bn.

Rising obesity has not yet slowed the advances in longevity achieved in recent decades, but treatments for complications of the overweight are incurring growing costs. Obese patients report higher rates of diabetes, heart disease and stroke, and have an increased risk of cancer, arthritis and lung disease.

“The costs of medical care linked to obesity are enormous, reaching $150bn a year in the US,” says Thomas Farley, New York’s health commissioner, who has championed policies ranging from calorie counts in the city’s restaurants to architecture designed to encourage use of stairs rather than lifts in new buildings. “We are moving to a situation where diabetes is becoming a normal part of human existence.”

MEDICAL PROGRESS

An industry’s search for a lucrative yet elusive weight-loss treatment

With obesity rates rising in developed and developing nations alike, accompanied by declining productivity and rising morbidity, there is an immense medical demand for safe drugs to help stem the epidemic. Yet, in spite of decades of research, the pharmaceutical industry has failed to launch a pill that removes excessive fat without unacceptable side-effects.

Several products launched with high hopes in recent years have been withdrawn after failing safety trials, or circumscribed with restrictions that discourage doctors from prescribing. But the potential market for a successful drug is so big – billions of dollars a year – that many companies persist in trying to develop them.

Three of the most watched contenders come from Californian companies: Lorcaserin from Arena; Qnexa from Vivus; and Orexigen’s Contrave. All have completed extensive clinical trials and are awaiting decisions by the US Food and Drug Administration this year. The verdicts will determine whether they receive marketing approval and, if so, under what conditions.

Obesity drugs work either on the guts, reducing food absorption; or on the brain, curbing the appetite. Xenical from Roche of Switzerland uses the first mechanism – it reduces fat intake through the digestive tract – but its gastrointestinal side-effects have restricted sales.

Most obesity drugs in development, including the Californian trio, act on the brain. This fits in with recent discoveries showing that the majority of genes influencing body weight affect mental rather than metabolic activity. “Considering how many factors are involved in obesity, it is interesting that research is increasingly pointing to the brain as being very important in its development,” says Robert Kaplan of New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

However some experts doubt the long-term value of drugs, which fail to address the psychological causes of overconsumption and lack of exercise in sedentary western and, increasingly, developing nations. They have “been focused predominantly on weight loss”, says Jason Halford of Liverpool university.

“Obesity is the result of many motivational factors that have evolved to encourage us to eat, not least our susceptibility to the attractions of food and the pleasures of eating energy-rich foods – factors which are, of course, all too effectively exploited by food manufacturers.”

His concern is shared by other public health experts, who were lent high-profile support this spring by Michelle Obama, the first lady, with her Let’s Move campaign to encourage exercise and improved nutrition. Her commitment, which she said was inspired by doctors’ concerns about her own daughters’ weight, comes as a generation of strong public health officials rise to influential positions and employers including the US military are struggling with obesity among recruits.

Over the past 30 years, obesity in the US has more than doubled, affecting well over one adult in three, and has tripled in children and adolescents to above 17 per cent. Amid the economic downturn since 2008, there is some evidence that sales of cheap but unhealthy fast food have held up better than healthier alternatives.

“This is a major public health problem and the only widespread one that is getting worse,” says Tom Frieden, Dr Farley’s predecessor as New York City’s health commissioner, who helped launch the aggressive campaign now being copied in other parts of the US. Dr Frieden has since championed a fresh emphasis on the topic as head of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But obesity, once seen as a disease of decadence, is spreading fast in the poorer as well as the more industrialised world, sparking expressions of concern and a range of recent initiatives in China, India and the Middle East, as well as parts of Latin America – which have among the highest rates anywhere. Worldwide, an estimated 1.6bn adults are now overweight, with 400m of them classifiable as obese.

Brazil, long a champion of public health, is debating warnings on some foods akin to those on tobacco packets. The UN has resolved to hold a first-ever summit on non-communicable diseases in September next year, including discussion around obesity. Ala Alwan, assistant director of the World Health Organisation, says that while infections such as HIV long captured policymakers’ attention, other diseases were until recently neglected, with none identified in the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. He adds: “We are moving towards a much more forceful era to strengthen the control and prevention of non-communicable disease.”

Most scientists agree on the causes of obesity. While human beings’ physical activity has declined significantly since their hunter-gatherer ancestors, their consumption of energy-dense food has remained stable or increased. And while it is easy to put on weight, it is much more difficult to lose it afterwards. “Once you get locked into a state of obesity, for a very substantial proportion of people it is phenomenally difficult to go back to their original weight,” says Philip James, head of the International Obesity Taskforce, a think-tank. “The evidence of a ratchet effect is pretty overwhelming: the brain chemically adapts.”

Some recent studies also suggest obesity may be higher in children born to overweight or smoking mothers; and a poor diet in young children may have a long-term impact on the formation of bacteria in their guts, increasing their long-term vulnerability to diseases including allergies.

Social changes including urbanisation and industrialisation, with a shift towards more sedentary lifestyles, have played a role. Yet while these trends have been taking place over many generations, the explosion in obesity has taken place in the past 30 years, pointing to the primary role of changing food intake.

David Kessler, a former head of the US Food & Drug Administration, argues in his recent book The End of Overeating that social trends have led to the breakdown of well-prepared, regular and healthy family meals. In their place is industry-backed “hyper-eating” throughout the day, with a combination of aggressive marketing, widespread availability and low-cost, supersized portions of “ultra-processed foods” containing ever more tempting but unhealthy combinations of fat and sugar.

Many of the same trends apply in developing countries. Stephan Rossner of the Karolinksa Institute in Stockholm says: “There is evidence that Asians are more vulnerable than Caucasians. And in China, with the one-child family, parents reward their kid for studying passively by giving them food and [electronic] games. Things are going the wrong way.”

There, as elsewhere, the result is rising medical bills as well as workplace absenteeism. Employers are starting to respond with staff wellness programmes. A smaller number take a harsher approach: Alabama and North Carolina government employees refusing to participate in health checks are from this year being charged a “fat tax” in the form of higher health insurance premiums.

Yet progress in tackling obesity has been extremely limited. While weight loss has become a huge industry, there is little evidence that most diets and supplements work in the long-term. Prescription medicines have so far also proved only modestly effective, with unpleasant and potentially severe side effects. Prof Rossner says: “It’s depressing to me as a scientist but the results of anti-obesity drugs are not very impressive and we have little to offer patients.”

Not all is gloomy. At the International Congress on Obesity held in Sweden in July, some reports suggested that for the first time the rate of growth of obesity in children in some countries including France, the UK and Sweden was beginning to slow. Tim Lobstein from the International Association for the Study of Obesity, a group of specialists, says: “We may be seeing a plateau.”

But he cautions that in spite of such signs, the trend remains upwards, particularly among the poor. Furthermore, dips in the past have been followed by fresh surges in obesity, and there are suggestions that slowing growth may be exaggerated because some obese children or their parents are no longer co-operating with studies and being weighed as in the past.

France’s Epode programme has generated international interest, with its apparent success linked to strong political leadership overseeing a range of initiatives from improved school nutrition to town planning designed to encourage exercise.

Yet neither Epode nor the UK’s more recent Change4Life programme has so far produced much systematic, peer-reviewed data. That makes it difficult to assess the impact of initiatives and to focus on those with the greatest chance of succeeding, especially as governments struggling with austerity measures are tempted to pare back on prevention programmes that will show little immediate return.

Of additional concern is the impact of the food and drink industry itself in fighting obesity. Epode’s sponsors include Orangina Schweppes, the drinks producer owned by Suntory of Japan; Kellogg, the US cereal manufacturer; and Italy’s Ferrero chocolate maker. Change4Life’s partners include Mars, the confectioner, and McCain, the frozen chips company, both of the US, and Britvic, the UK soft drinks group.

Derek Yach, in charge of global health policy at PepsiCo of the US, another Change4Life partner, which has pledged significant reductions in sugar, salt and fat in its products and to eliminate sales of sugary drinks in schools, says: “There are a lot of industry efforts, but many governments are not thinking about getting behind them.”

Others are more sceptical of industry’s involvement, suggesting its participation helps burnish its image while compromising the ability of governments to take a tougher line on issues such as restrictions on food advertising and labelling, taxes on salt and sugar content, and reduced subsidies that differentially favour less healthy ingredients such as palm oil. Tam Fry, a director of the National Obesity Forum, a UK-based group, says: “The time has come for governments to take a firm hand. They are there to govern, not to kowtow to vested interests.”

Certainly, corporate health promotion initiatives may seem modest in comparison to countervailing trends, such as a recent estimate from the Federal Trade Commission that in the US alone, companies spend $1.6bn a year just on food advertising directed at children and adolescents.

Equally, labelling remains contentious, with industry successfully lobbying this year to prevent the European parliament approving a “traffic light” system, as advocated by the UK’s Food Standards Agency, to warn consumers of less healthy food ingredients. In its place come vaguer guideline daily allowances.

Finding the right partnership with the food and drink industry will prove one of the most testing issues in the coming years in any efforts to reverse the current trends in obesity. Dr Kessler, a long-standing advocate of tough action against tobacco companies to improve public health, argues: “This will prove much tougher. We all have to eat.” Christopher Caldwell: Why fat is not a First Lady’s issue

E-Numbers inside your food

2010-08-28T01:23:00.000-07:00

Greetings from "My Right to Safe Food"

The consequences of refined processed and junk foods are there for us to see. Distraught parents succumb to children's tantrums so as to satiate their junk food taste buds. Unfortunately most young mother's are unaware that these refined processed, junk foods are designed to appease the senses but nothing more. Appeasing leads to addiction that costs children, youth, even young mothers and adults their lives. Diseases that were rare at the turn of the century is invading every second home. Not to forget the big dent in the pocket, the pain, the grief upon seeing a loved one suffer. This pain cannot be quantified.

Yet consumers are either unaware or remain oblivious that their daily kitchen grocery purchases are anything but safe. The food ingredients that they purchase with such trust and loyalty undergo intense chemical processing. They range from branded refined oils, rice, grains, sugar, synthetic sugar, flour, salt, fats, spices and more. No wonder cold pressed coconut, sesame, mustard oils and more are less sought after and their uses nullified. A huge conspiracy is behind this but I will not get into it.

These refined processed food products promoted have a longer shelf life as they undergo lethal treatments and stripped completely of nutrition. A whole lot of gimmicky advertisements shriek out their safety and advantages. With not a reason to doubt, consumers knowingly or unknowingly lap up all of the above and the fast selling refined breads, snacks, pizzas, burgers, cookies, cakes, chocolates and beverages. As if safe food alternatives were a thing of outdated past! Our Indian belief "Buy fresh and cook fresh" is fast flying out of the window. "No Time to cook", more of a western trait prevails in Indian homes. Sadly, cooking is reserved for occasions only! But this major time constraint has been merrily encashed by fast junk foods and food processing giants.

By buying deceptively attractive fortified packaged foods, health is bound to be compromised. It is not just India but across the globe. These branded food products by MNC's and private companies available in super market shelves are passed liberally by the food safety authorities as consumers fail to raise concerns nor question the source. Snacks like cakes, biscuits, chips, pizzas and more have a whole lot of trans-fats or hydrogenated fats. Besides this, goes in E- numbers like emulsifiers, additives, stabilisers, colourants and flavor enhancers.

A culmination of sedentary lifestyles and dietary shifts to processed food products and fast junk foods containing a whole lot of synthetic E-numbers are silently poisoning us. No wonder the West is suffering no end. We always look up to America. The reality is much worse there -
One in three Americans dies of cancer
One in three suffers from allergies
One in three suffers from obesity
One in five is mentally ill
One in ten has ulcers , the other degenerative diseases like diabetes, Alzheimers and more are sapping the life blood of the nation
One out of five pregnancies ends in miscarriage and one quarter of million infants are born with a birth defect each year.
Learning disabilities such as dyslexia and hyperactivity afflict seven million young people.
Americans spend one dollar out of every fourteen for medical services. The most cursory survey of current statistics can prove this.

Now the question arises "Who stands to gain?" Maximum profits are reaped at a quantum speed by the most powerful and flourishing food processing industry, all at consumers cost. Parallely, the medical and pharmaceutical companies stand to gain.

Eat healthy! How do you do this with the escalating food prices, gas and everything else? Where are the alternatives? How do we get them? This is a question often asked by people when considering how to improve their diets. However, the real question should be “How can you afford not to eat healthy with the high costs of being ill?”

Re-thinking healthy eating habits may help you make food choices that work for you. Eating healthy means selecting foods that are nutrient-dense( this will be shared shortly) readily available to the individual. What is stopping us from going back to our time tested traditional diets? Get back to the basics. Substitute refined oils to cold pressed sesame, coconut, mustard oil and more. Substitute margarine, low fats to ghee and butter. Substitute white refined sugar to cane sugar if not available, then go for jaggary or jaggary syrup, date syrup. Ban apartame completely out of your diets...Nutra sweet, splenda. Substitute idozised salt to Himalayan rock salt, refined white rice to red/ brown rice. So many alternatives yet the will to do is lacking.

Eating nutritious foods does not have to be costly and can actually be a cost savings in the long-run. There are many things people can do to control food costs while still wishing to have a health-promoting diet. When budgeting, most people separate medical costs from food costs. However, these two are linked. As one eats more nutritious foods, medical problems and costs can be mitigated or eliminated, thus reducing overall spending. And actually, for the typical family, an increase in food costs is not even necessary for improving the diet. Improving one’s diet does mean spending more time to finding more nutritious foods and safe food sources/ alternatives.

What are E- numbers?

E numbers are number codes for food additives that have been assessed for use within the European Union (the "E" prefix stands for "Europe"). Check this link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_number

E- numbers is a chemical compound that is added to protect against decay or decomposition to inhibit spoilage. Not all E-numbers are bad for you. However, most E- numbers are prepared/produced synthetically as these are often less expensive than the natural product.

It is extremely wise to avoid eating food with harmful food additives, preservatives. Many of these food additives were once of natural origin and were not harmful. Reading product labels for its E Numbers is essential. Its an awakening by itself. If you care for your well being, then when you purchase a food product, make a note of the E- numbers, it does not take much time. Another useful link - http://www.foodfigures.com/ and below. This way you rule out many allergies or chronic symptoms from reoccurring. Invest in your health.

Classification by numeric range.
1. E100s are generally colours.
2. E200 to E282 are mainly preservatives and acids.
3. E300 to E341 are mainly antioxidants and acid regulators.
4. E400s include emulsifiers, stabilisers, thickeners, anti-caking agents, release agents and bulking agents.
5. E500-E599 - Mineral salts & Anti-caking agents
6. E600-E699 - Flavour enhancers
7. E900-E1520 and by name - Miscellaneous
In the links below, you will find the E numbers that are banned or forbidde by some responsible countries.

A peep into what you get to eat in the processed foods that you most enjoy....

a. E 102, Tartrazine, an azo dye, yellow and orange colourant. It is Forbidden - source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_number
Usage - Found in soft drinks, cakes, biscuits, puddings, meat products, sauces, tinned and packet convenience foods, confectionery.
Side effects - people who are intolerant to salicylates (aspirin, berries, fruits); in that case tartrazine also induces intolerance symptoms. In combination with benzoates (E210-215), tartrazine is implicated in a large percentage of cases of ADHD syndrome (hyperactivity) in children. Asthmatics sometimes react badly and may also experience symptoms following consumption of tartrazine, as it is a known histamine-liberating agent.

Interestingly, a valuable contributor to safe foods Dr. Madan Thangavelu of the Medical Research Council Cambridge shared his take on E102, "Some 20 years ago, aged 5-10, I was diagnosed as a "problem child", with fits of anger, rage and sometimes even hold my breath until I turned blue and passed out. The doctors just blamed parenting skills or my personality. But further investigation - mainly by my parents - found this was a reaction to E102, which at the time was used to colour cola, orange juice and other food stuffs. As soon as E102 was stripped from my diet I was as good as new".

b. E123 Amaranth, a synthetic coal tar dye, red in colour. Modern synthetics are more likely to be made from petroleum byproducts. Forbidden
Usage - sometimes in gravy mixes, cake mixes, fruit-flavoured fillings, jelly crystals; meat patties and black currant drinks.
Side Effects - can provoke asthma, eczema and hyperactivity; it caused birth defects and foetal deaths in some animal tests, possibly also cancer.

Banned in the USA, Russia, Austria and Norway and other countries

c. E220 Sulphur Dioxide, usage found in carbonated drinks, marmalade, glace cherries, mixed peel, cakes, fruit based products and meat products. Gas prepared chemically for use as a food preservative, flour improver, bleaching agent and vitamin C stabiliser.
Side Effects - Headaches, Intestine Upset, Skin Disorders, Destroys Vitamin B12

d. E621 - Monosodium glutamate (MSG), a Flavour enhancers derived from the fermentation of molasses, salt substitute; adverse effects appear in some asthmatic people, not permitted in foods for infants and young children; typical products are canned vegetables, canned tuna, dressings, many frozen food, and chinese foods. We Indians are very fond of Chinese food, thankfully in some well known restaurants they clearly mention - NO MSG, but most use it liberally. Warning: Adverse effects appear in some asthmatic people, Headaches, Intestine Upset and Skin Disorders. Not permitted in foods for infants and young children.

These are only a few of E- numbers one has shared. Most question labeling in India, that it has yet to come of age or for that matter can it be trusted? My take "First start the process of reading labels, slowly the jig-saw puzzle of your deteriorating immunities will unravel. Your road to recovery begins". Its best not to fear E-numbers as all are not bad for you. Just be informed, alert and take charge than be sorry. For many years now, my family and me have been cautious and conscious when buying anything off the shelve. It certainly has paid off.

If you have limited time, please find the excerpts from links below. Print it out and carry it in your shopping bags, pick up a food product, read the label and check out for yourself. It may shock you at first but just start. There is basic toxicology principle for safe consumption. Some Es are so safe there is no acceptable daily intake (ADI) level. E202, the preservative potassium sorbate, for instance, you can eat up to 25mg for each kg of your body weight. But there are others that have strict ADIs, although these limits aren't indicated on food packaging. Well, anything in excess over a period of time boomerangs on health. Think, how many chips packets, biscuits, cakes, chocolates, cokes you buy off the shelve and calculate the intake of E numbers, it will be a startling revelation!

You will agree that no amount of yoga nor pranic healing, reiki nor exercise nor meditation will gain ground, if your basic Sattvic Food( pure foods that are rich in prana) is under grave assault. Energy which has three qualities, known as Gunas exist together in equilibrium. With a balanced flow of sattva energy starting from food, a peaceful mind in control of a fit body emerges. This is not just a prescribed diet for a yogic. Millions throng spiritual ashram/centres in search of peace, health and harmony. The food prepared is simple yet delicious, moderation is maintained along with calm energies. But most ingredients are refined in nature be it from oils, rice, sugar, flours, snacks like biscuits, cakes with hydrogenated fats and more are served. Vegetables with pesticides are outsourced. Can this be done away with? The spiritual centres surely can evolve sustainable models of growing and procuring safe sattvic foods for their million devotees, given their financial muscle. Some ashrams are striving towards growing some vegetable produce which is good. But most are lagging far, far behind. In small spiritual gatherings or satsangs, the food served thereafter is so rajasic and tamasic that the whole purpose of a satsang is diluted. Exchanges on spiritual discourse via emails there are neither dissections nor actions stressed to caution/remedify the toxic food available nor its intake.

“When sattva predominates, the light of wisdom shines through every gate of the body” (BG 14: 11).Is this not what most want? Why, then take for granted the "powerhouse of energies, your body"?

Unfortunately consumers are victims of their own colonised minds. If such grief stricken awakenings of loved ones reaching puberty at age six, muscular distrophy at age 4, diabetes at 5, heart disease, BP at age 16 is not a reason to stand up and question. Then suffering is surely written.

Dare to find the safe food alternatives and sustainable solutions? We have them.
Come, join us.

In solidarity

Sangita Sharma
http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/
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http://www.growingkids.co.uk/ENumbersToAvoid.html

Health specialists around the world are becoming increasingly convinced that the additives in processed foods are firmly linked to the dramatic rise in children's allergies. However, despite mounting evidence, there has been very few restrictions placed on the food manufacturers in the UK and the USA. Some countries have displayed a more responsible attitude and, as you will see from the lists below, have banned certain substances. Particular attention has been paid to infants and children's products because their immature organs are less efficient at removing such toxins from their systems. Unfortunately, it makes frightening reading.

Please note that, when reading the following lists, if a substance is shown as being banned in several countries, it means that the adverse effects are too numerous to list. These E-numbers should be avoided AT ALL TIMES. Any substance marked with * means that it is derived from animals (mostly pigs) and should be avoided if a child has pork allergies.

Colourant E- Numbers Banned in Some Countries

* E102 Tartrazine, yellow colourant - used in all manner of foodstuffs
* E104 Quinoline Yellow - used in all manner of foodstuffs and to colour medicines
* E107 Yellow 7G - used in soft drinks
* E110* Sunset Yellow FCF, Orange Yellow S- used in all manner of foodstuffs and medications
* E120* Cochineal, red colour
* E123 Amaranth - in cake mixes, fruit flavoured fillings, jelly crystals
* E124 Ponceau 4R, Cochineal RedA
* E127 Erythrosine red colourant - glace cherries, canned fruit, custard mix, sweets, snack foods
* E128 Red 2G
* E129 Allura red AC - in sweets, drinks and medications
* E131 Patent blue V
* E132* Indigotine, Indigo carmine - ice cream, sweets, baked goods, confectionery, biscuits
* E133 Brilliant blue FCF - dairy products, sweets and drinks
* E142 Green S - canned peas, mint jelly and sauce, packet bread crumbs and cake mixes
* E151 Brilliant Black BN, Black PN - brown sauces, blackcurrant cake mixes
* E153* black colourant used in jams, jelly crystals and liquorice
* E155 brown HT (chocolate) used in chocolate cake mixes
* E160(c)* Paprika extract
* E173 Aluminium colourant
* E174 Silver colourant
* E175 Gold colourant
* E180 Latolrubine BK

Preservative E-numbers Banned in Some Countries

* E214 Ethyl p-hydroxybenzoate
* E215 Sodium ethyl p-hydroxybenzoate
* E217 sodium propyl p-hydroxybenzoate
* E219 Sodium methyl p-hydroxybenzoate
* E226 Calcium sulphite
* E227 Calcium hydrogen sulphite
* E228 Potassium hydrogen sulphite
* E230 Biphenyl, Diphenyl
* E231 Orthophenyl phenol
* E232 Sodium orthophenyl phenol
* E233 Thiabendazole
* E236 Formic acid
* E237 Sodium formate
* E238 Calcium formate
* E239 Hexamethylene tetramine
* E249 Potassium nitrite
* E252* Potassium nitrite

Acids, Antioxidants and Mineral Salts E-Numbers Banned in Certain Countries
* E310 , E311, E312 - various gallates used in oils, fats and salad dressings
* E320 Butylated hydroxyl-anisole (BHA)
* E363 Succinic acid
* E370 1,4-Heptonolactone
* E385 Calcium disodium EDTA

Vegetable Gums, Emulsifiers and Stabiliser E-numbers Banned in Certain Countries

* E420 Sorbitol
* E421 Mannitol
* E432* Polysorbate 20
* E434* Polysorbate 40
* E463 Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose
* E470* Fatty acids salts
* E474* Sucroglycerides
* E483* Stearyl tartrate
* E493* Sorbitan monolaurate
* E494* Sorbitan mono-oleate
* E495* Sorbitan monopalmitate

Mineral Salts and Anti-Caking Agents E-Numbers Banned in Some Countries
* E513 Sulphuric acid
* E524 Sodium hydroxide
* E525 Potassium hydroxide
* E527 Ammonium hydroxide
* E528 Magnesium hydroxide
* E530 Magnesium oxide
* E540 Dicalcium diphosphate
* E541 Sodium aluminium phosphate
* E544 Calcium polyphosphates
* E545 Ammonium polyphosphates
* E553(a) Magnesium silicates
* E576 Sodium gluconate

Flavour Enhancer E-Numbers Banned in Some Countries
* E626, E627, E629 - various guanylates
* E635* Disodium 5'-ribonucleotide - flavoured crisps, instant noodles, pies

Miscellaneous E-numbers Banned in Some Countries
* E907* Refined microcrystalline wax - sweets, dried fruit.
* E927 Azodicarbonamide
* E952 Cyclamic acid - artificial sweetener
* E954 Saccharines - artificial sweetener

E-numbers, Not in the Banned Lists, that are Believed to Cause Allergic Reactions Ranging From Hyperactivity to Asthma, Migraines, Rashes and Digestive Upsets
* E120* Cochineal, Carminic acid - red colourant
* E150(a), (b), (c), (d) - caramel colourants
* E160(b) Annatto - used to dye cheese, butter, margarine, cereals, snack foods.
* E210* Benzoic acid - preservative in baked goods, cheeses, gum, ice creams, relishes, soft sweets, cordials
* E211 Sodium benzoate - orange soft drinks, milk and meat products, relishes, baked goods, ice lollies and lollipops and in medications
* E212 Potassium benzoate - as E211
* E220 Sulphur dioxide - soft drinks, dried fruit, juices, cordials, potato products.
* E221, E222, E223, E224, E225 - as E220
* E235 Natamycin - meat, cheese
* E249, E250, E252*- various nitrites used in the preservation of meat
* E280, E281, E282, E283 - various propionates used in bread and flour products
* E296 Malic acid
* E319 Tert-ButylHydroQuinone
* E320 Butylated hydroxyl-anisole
* E412 Guar Gum
* E413 Tragacanth
* E414 Acacia
* E416 Karaya Gum
* E441* Gelatine
* E620* Glutamic acid - flavour enhancer
* E621 Monosodium glutamate - flavour enhancer
* E951* Aspartame - artificial sweetener
* E967 Xylitol - used in low-calorie foods

Please note that the above lists are not comprehensive in that they do not include E numbers that relate specifically to lactose intolerance or gluten intolerance in children. If your child has been diagnosed with those conditions then your doctor should have given you a list of E-numbers to avoid.

Reputed Scientists threatened and stripped of their responsibilities from renowned institutes when they reveal their research findings on GMO's

2010-08-21T23:44:00.000-07:00

Greetings from "My Right to Safe Food"

With the BRAI bill shortly to be tabled in the cabinet, this email is a reminder to strengthen forces and stand for our constitutional right - Safe Foods.
Moreover for those safe food campaigners who have recently joined our network, please find below the "Politics behind GM foods".

This is nothing new, these corrupt MNC giants use their financial clout to influence the decisions of country leaders. Upon revealing the hard facts of research findings be it on GM potato, Bt corn, here is what happened to Dr Arpad Putzai and other reputed scientists like Dr Eric Giles Serralini, Dr Mae Wan Ho and more for speaking up.

So many consumers connect with me, especially mothers who are distressed and distraught as to why their children are victims of so many diseases? The assault in our food chain needs to be stopped. We have the solutions. Just wake up first, spread the message and join us. Time is of essence.

In solidarity

Sangita Sharma
http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/
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GM-FREE Vol. 1 no. 3 August/September 1999

WHY I CANNOT REMAIN SILENT

Dr Pusztai talks to GM-FREE

Dr Pusztai kindly agreed to interrupt his summer vacation to give us an exclusive interview. Here are his views on his suppressed research and the dubious science driving the introduction of GM technology.

On why GM is not safe, predictable or precise

GM-FREE: The rats in your experiment who ate potatoes genetically engineered to produce GNA lectin suffered reduced organ weights and immune damage. Why do you think this was?

Dr Pusztai: I think the reason is not the GNA lectin itself, but the technique. Probably the CaMV (Cauliflower Mosaic Virus [See The Use Of Cauliflower Mosaic Virus in Why Labeling Genetically Modified Organisms is Pointless --ratitor], a promoter used to switch on the introduced gene) had a part in it. It's a problematic thing.

The other problem is the positioning of the inserted gene. Our experiment showed up how imprecise the technique is, because we had two GM potatoes, both contained GNA lectin, and both came from the same pot. They were both grown in greenhouses or in fields in tunnels under identical conditions and at the same time. Yet they came out different. The only explanation is that the incorporation of the transgene [inserted gene] into the host genome happened at two different places. And the effect on the genome was different.

These positioning effects are not simple to predict. Think of William Tell shooting an arrow at a target. Now put a blindfold on the man doing the shooting and that's the reality of the genetic engineer when he's doing a gene insertion. He has no idea where the transgene will land in the recipient genome.

Meanwhile, while we are all arguing in Britain, scientists in other countries are getting on with the job. There are two new papers by Japanese scientists, on GM rice and GM soya. They say that the positioning effect has to be taken into consideration because we don't know which genes in the host organism the inserted genes will make silent or reactivate. It is clear from their evidence that some of the changes cannot be predicted on the basis of the gene insertion.

On substantial equivalence

Dr Pusztai: The idea of "substantial equivalence" is that there is no need for biological safety tests because the plants must be of similar composition as the parent line. This is the basis on which GM crops are being released. However, they cannot be substantially equivalent to the parent because you've introduced new genes. That's why I don't give tuppence for substantial equivalence.

We had two transgenic lines of potato produced from the same gene insertion and the same growing conditions; we grew them together along with the parent plant. With our two lines of potato, which should have been substantially equivalent to each other, we found that one of the lines contained 20% less protein than the other. So the two lines were not substantially equivalent to each other. But we also found that these two lines were not substantially equivalent to their parent. This could not be predicted. It demonstrates that the unpredictability is inherent in the GM process on a case by case basis -- and also at the level of every single GM plant created.

Our project should have ended right there, in my opinion, but we had to develop new testing techniques useful for all GM plants.

In genetic engineering, a lot of GM plants never see the daylight, because for one reason or another they don't grow or they have an unpleasant colour like the GM salmon which turned green. Where unpredictable effects show up, you throw them out. But from the point of view of science, these are important. Because if GM is such a predictable, precise science, then you should be able to produce the same thing again and again. But you can't.

Regarding our potatoes, even after many lines were thrown out, the ones which we retained were still all different from each other. Even though they all came from the same pot, using the same genetic construct, and were grown in identical conditions. So this is my challenge: if it is so predictable, so precise, they should not be any different. They must not be different. Causative logic says that they ought to be the same. That is for me the most worrying aspect.

On the allergy threat

GM-FREE: This lack of predictability is worrying for people with food allergies. These people can only live their lives on the basis that they know which foods to avoid. Biotech companies claim they test for "known allergens" like peanuts. But there are thousands of other foods that can cause serious allergies but which are not classed as known allergens. On top of this, there may be new toxins or allergens in GM foods that are not spotted because they are not looked for.

But what you are saying means that even if you test three potatoes and find that they do not cause an allergic reaction, a fourth potato of the same kind, produced by the same technique, could cause a toxic or allergic reaction.

Dr Pusztai: You are quite right. The only thing you could do is find a stable GM organism, which has been put through tens of generations and still comes out the same, and which is not crossed with any other potato. You keep the purity of the line.

GM-FREE: In the real world, this is impossible.

Dr Pusztai: I totally agree. We are storing up problems for the future.

On the "sound science" behind the GM push

Dr Pusztai: GM foods have been introduced on the back of just one published paper. Just one, in fifteen years of GM. It was written by a Monsanto scientist and published in 1996. The study was a feeding trial of Roundup Ready soya on rats, catfish, chicken and cows. I don't want to say anything about it because it's a published paper, but I could take it apart in 10 seconds.

GM-FREE: Ah, go on.

Dr Pusztai: Well, the main problem is that the researchers appear to have done their utmost to find no problem. They were using mature animals which are not forming body tissues and organs. Adults only need a small amount of protein because their bodies are in equilibrium, in homeostasis. But a young growing animal needs a great deal more protein because it's laying down muscle and tissues, and forming its organs.

With a nutritional study on mature animals, you would never see any difference in organ weights even if the food turned out to be anti-nutritional. The animals would have to be emaciated or poisoned to show anything. In this study, they gave the rats a commercial feed that contained 20% protein, of which only one-tenth was replaced by GM soya protein. Most of this high overall dietary protein was used by the rats for energy, thus masking any possible effect of the GM soya protein. You need to stress the animals if you want to see the effects of a feeding trial in a short enough time. This is my field, so you can take it for granted that if I had had the chance of refereeing that paper, it would never have passed.

Another problem was the way they did the post-mortem. They never weighed the organs; they just looked at them -- what they call "eyeballing". I must have done thousands of post-mortems so I know that even if there is a difference in organ weights of as much as 25%, you wouldn't see it. In my lectures I used to put up two identical computer-drawn rats side by side and put two different sized organs in them, and I asked the audience which rat was bigger, and they always got it wrong. You have to weigh them.

On the British Medical Association's call for a GM moratorium

Dr Pusztai: It stands to reason that they would take a strong line. If there is any problem, the doctors will have to deal with it. It's easy for a gene-basher to say, "I've got some fantastic product," because he doesn't have to see the consequences. He can only see that this or that insect is killed and as far as he is concerned that's the end of the story.

But this is a very unfair and unscientific attitude. It is close to being irresponsible, because we are playing God. You can call it God, evolution, natural selection, natural law, whatever -- but this is what it is.

On the scientific and political establishment's tactics

GM-FREE: In May this year, four major reports, all trumpeting the safety of GM foods and all condemning your work, were released within two days of each other. They were the Donaldson/May report, the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee report, the Royal Society review, and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics' report. What's your view on the timing of these reports?

Dr Pusztai: Can you believe that four major reports could come out, all condemning me, within two days? That is stretching belief.

It's clear that there was a concerted effort to discredit me. The only body that invited me for discussions, the Environmental Toxicology Committee, gave me just eleven days' notice. I explained that on that day I would be on a plane, so could they please suggest an alternative day. They obviously were not interested, because they did not come back to me. The Royal Society, despite the fact that I offered my full cooperation, refused it; they just wanted to have pieces of paper which they could shred to bits to condemn me.

In 1956, when I was living in Hungary, I got a Ford Foundation Scholarship and they said I could go wherever I wanted. I chose England because I thought the British were fair, and that they would tolerate even an oddball like me. But then I found out about these machinations and duplicity.

On the Royal Society review of his research

Dr Pusztai: The Royal Society report was totally negative and unhelpful, and obviously made to cut me down, to give the political masters the backing they required from an august body.

You see, if you submit a paper to a journal, in 7 out of 10 instances, the reviewers are helpful. For example, they say, "I don't think you have done this well; could it not have been done this way instead?" Then there is a dialogue. The point is not to steam-hammer some poor soul, but, as I said in a letter to the Royal Society, to arrive together at the truth. But in this case, there has been no attempt whatever to discover the truth.

The Royal Society, instead of going back to last August and all that history, should be concentrating on how to make the experiments better. There is not a single word in their review that addresses this, apart from saying it should be better designed. My PhD students would have laughed at me if I said anything like that. Sanctimonious phrases are not enough -- if you criticise an experiment, you have to say how you would go about doing it better.

I have published everything in my life. I make a solemn promise that I shall try my best to publish my research. If I fail, I shall put it on the internet. I owe it to the people who have been supporting me that they should know all the facts. No matter how the Royal Society or whoever else machinates against me, I will do it.

On his decision to go public with his findings before peer review and publication

Dr Pusztai: The British tax payer has spent [pounds]1.6m for this Rowett-based research. You have paid for it. Yet if I had not spoken out, the information would have stopped at the Rowett.

Other scientists often ask me why I went against the code of practice and spoke out before publication in a peer reviewed journal. I made my 150-second testimony on TV's World in Action because I had facts that indicated to me there were serious problems with transgenic food. It can take two to three years to get science papers published and these foods were already on the shelves without rigorous biological testing similar to that of our GM potato work. I did indicate my concern and it cost me my job but I would do it again. If I had not done it, we would now be eating these potatoes and not discussing the safety of GM food.
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History of what happened to Arpad Pusztai and his work. Full article at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Árpád_Pusztai

Although James denied the calls ever took place, Professor Robert Orskov OBE, who worked at the Rowett for 33 years and is one of Britain's leading nutrition experts, claimed he was told that the phone calls went from Monsanto Company, the American firm which produces 90% of the world's GM food, to Clinton to Blair. "Clinton rang Blair and Blair rang James - you better keep that man (Pusztai) shut up. James didn't know what to do. Instead of telling him to keep his mouth shut, they should have told him to say it needs more work. But there is no doubt that he was pushed by Blair to do something."[6][8]

Gilles Eric Seralini has published work on a Monsanto pesticide.

Séralini is now the target of a concerted campaign to vilify and discredit him, involving not just Monsanto, EFSA and FSAANZ, but also scientific societies representing biotechnology in France: the French Association of Plant Biotechnology and the French High Counsel on Biotechnology. This seriously threatens his funding to continue research for public good and also his job.

A large number of academics, professors and researchers have signed up to protest against the defamation and victimisation of Séralini, and to defend openness and transparency in the risk assessment of GMOs. The protest is being organised by the European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER) http://www.ensser.org/. They have produced a letter and Appendix with full details.

In Argentina: Another scientist questioning the same Monsanto product was also attacked. http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/11576-glyphosate-whistle-blower-comes-under-sustained-attack

Why didn't your study get support from other media and from companies? - Nearly a week after the publication shadowy players, for example from the business and media sector, got involved. Then the attacks commenced. The last straw was when I appeared in my laboratory to find commercial lawyers (CASAFE) demanding to see my research reports and data, and they conducted interviews which were very intimidating towards my staff. This was unacceptable bullying, but they have no right to access the contents of my laboratory on the pretext that they represent the law. I do not discuss my research with private companies or lawyers, especially if they are part of the problem. I discuss my results with my peers who will judge my professional expertise, in conferences, meetings, seminars and every day in my laboratory. On the other hand, I received intimidating calls, as reported. Therefore, I am careful about who I work for. Clearly, Clarín and La Nation, some say, have a vested interest, and act as spokesmen for the companies. When my peers examine my work, I will be there. As a researcher I will leave it to companies to seek to influence the media and temporary government officials.

When a researcher attempted to present research on Monsanto's pesticide in a town in Argentina, the unheard of happened.
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/science-speech-on-glyphosate-toxicity-halted-by-attack-on-attendees-public-officials/

Amnesty International reports that:

On arrival in La Leonesa at around 4pm, the delegation headed for the school where the talk was due to take place. However, the talk was suspended because the delegation was attacked by a group of around 100 people who threatened them and beat them. One person has since suffered from lower body paralysis after being hit on his spine, and another is undergoing neurological examinations after receiving blows to the head. The former provincial Sub-Secretary of Human Rights, Marcelo Salgado, was struck in the face and left unconscious. Dr Carrasco and his colleague shut themselves in a car, and were surrounded by people making violent threats and beating the car for two hours. Members of the community were injured and a journalist’s camera equipment was damaged.

Members of the community who witnessed the incident have implicated local officials in the attack, as well as a local rice-producer and his workers and security guards. They strongly believe that the violence was promoted by them, and motivated by the powerful economic interests behind local agro-industry.

S 510, the "food safety" bill in the Senate, was designed by Monsanto.
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/s-510-is-hissing-in-the-grass

“If accepted [S 510] would preclude the public’s right to grow, own, trade, transport, share, feed and eat each and every food that nature makes. It will become the most offensive authority against the cultivation, trade and consumption of food and agricultural products of one’s choice. It will be unconstitutional and contrary to natural law or, if you like, the will of God.” ~Dr. Shiv Chopra, Canada Health whistleblower who stood up to Monsanto at the risk of his job and helped stop Monsanto's rBGH from being approved in Canada.

Mae-Wan Ho ( Hong Kong; UK citizen) is a geneticist known for her critical views on genetic engineering. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae-Wan_Ho

Ho has authored or co-authored a number of publications, including 10 books, such as The Rainbow and the Worm, the Physics of Organisms (1993, 1998), Genetic Engineering: Dream or Nightmare? (1998, 1999), and Living with the Fluid Genome (2003). Ho is the director of the The Institute of Science in Society (ISIS), an interest group that campaigns against what it sees as unethical uses of biotechnology.[6]
The vaccines are far more deadly than the swine flu by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14869
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The World According To Monsanto
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6262083407501596844#

Still imprisoned. What Independence?

2010-08-15T05:09:00.000-07:00

Greetings from "My Right to Safe Food"

Just back after attending Independence Day celebrations by the little stars of Parmanand Education Trust (P.ET). This incredible school educates 250 underprivileged children from various backgrounds ranging from domestic help, contract workers, security guards, orphans, including 12 of my farmers children and more from surrounding villages. Witnessing these children perform with such zeal and enthusiasm was so heart provoking. A dedicated lot of enterprising teachers choreographed painstakingly short skits and dance performances translating the essence of true Freedom.

This one particular skit made a deep impact on me. I hope it did the same to a whole lot of parents, educationists and passers by. This act depicted the currently existing vices like corruption, unhealthy environment, untouchability, dowry, poverty, caste system and ugly bickering politics. How each one of these vices need to be overcome by reflecting the need to stand up for honesty, transparency, harmony of one and all. After which as future awakened citizens, a celebration of FREEDOM ensued. Truly outstanding.

This to me is our Freedom, not this mindless futile emotive of wishing each other a "Happy Independence Day". The whole nation and NRI's galore go into a frenzy by showing patriotism on this particular day. Only to indulge in a superficial celebration, pretending all is well. But all is not! After 63 years of this so called Independence hard earned by our freedom fighters, we have not only let them down but ourselves unfortunately. Our policy makers, industry and scientists have progressed. But not the masses of citizens who remain mute spectators. Alarm bells ring loud. The health of our nation is under serious jeopardy.

The proof is right in front of you.

We have an an estimated 421 million in poverty. 360 million dying of hunger. We breed a sick nation with every second person a victim of some chronic disease. Is this Freedom? But there is not

- a squeak against the policy makers who get away by designing policies to suit the vested interests of the 48 dollar billionaires and about a 100,000 millionaires in our country.

- Not a squeak against faulty farm policies designed to suit industry but not our farmers. Traditional seeds are under threat, a direct consequence of our food being under assault.

- Not a squeak against pharmaceutical industry that releases day after day new drugs, new vaccines, new prescriptions to suit a new diseases. But the root cause is never tackled. Progress in science they call it but in reality designed to fill their coffers. No wonder India is the Diabetic capital in the world with only a 40.9 million people being diabetic.

- Not a squeak against the flourishing food processing industry that unleashes day after day countless toxic refined foods. In short, we blindly accept the claims of these politically correct nutritionists.

There is no distinction made by these diet dictocrats :

-between whole grains and refined grains, cereals, nuts and more that have lost their nutrients

-Between foods grown organically and those grown with fertilizers, pesticides and now genetically engineered.

-Between unprocessed dairy products and pasteurized dairy products from confined animals raised on processed feed.

•Between fresh and rancid fats

•Between natural and battery produced eggs and more

Just look at the irony - It single out foods grown by independent producers – small farmers but spares the powerful and highly profitable food processing industry, vegetable refined oil producers. It gives lip service to the overwhelming evidences implicating refined sugar as a major cause of degenerative diseases but spares the soft drink industry. It raises not a murmur against the refined flour, hydrogenated fats and foods adulterated with harmful preservatives like emulsifiers and coloring agents. In short, the traditional foods that nourished our ancestors is now replaced with the new toxic products that dominate the modern market place. Diet Dictocrats endorse this, they are none other than doctors, policy makers, scientists, health associations and more. Dr Sally Fallon has articulated this truths in her book Nourishing Traditions.

With the result being immunities are collapsing. Children are the victims for they are far more susceptible. Children as old as 6 reach puberty, youth at 18 suffering heart attacks, cancer, BP and more. Is this the future we wish to provide our children? What kind of independence is this?

We the educated citizens wear blinkers and stay trapped but do nothing within our own country, then who is to blame? The enemy is not outside of our borders. The enemy resides well within us. Colonised we still are but within our own minds. Our defenses and voice of reasoning dies a tragic death each day. We have no time to question the oppressive institutional policies that have constantly undermined the well being of our nation. Henry Kissenger forecast is well underway “ if you want to control nations control oil, but if you want to control the society control food”. A handful of MNC's are merrily controlling our food chain. Whilst they laugh their ways to their banks, you suffer your way to the hospitals with a big dent in your pocket.

Wake up. Set yourself free from the clutches of sense habits. Raise your voices against the dictats of the junk, processed food produce. Boycott all such products.
The Right to Safe Food Choices and Good Health is our constitutional Right. Demand it.

Freedom lies with us. Just shift the gears in your minds and START.

Below, please find an interesting but profoundly true "Obituary printed in the London Times", I could not resist sharing this with you and an apt poster above by Karmayog

In solidarity

Sangita Sharma
http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/
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An Obituary printed in the London Times

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

- Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
- Why the early bird gets the worm;
- Life isn't always fair;
- and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I'm A Victim

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

A Clean and Green Home

2010-08-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

GREENING HOUSE AND HOME
http://www.motherearthnews.com/greening-house-and-home/clean-and-green-2.aspx?utm_content=08.06.10+GEGH&utm_campaign=GEGH&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email

By Simran Sethi

I grew up in a house where my mom bragged you could eat off the floors. I, at one point, seemed to have inherited those same traits, once demonstrating to a boyfriend that my floors were clean enough to eat on by licking them. Now, I’m finding dust bunnies that rival the size of real ones, and have acquired a pesky habit of holding on to stuff I no longer want or need. I’m determined to do things differently.

Don’t get me wrong. I am cluttered, but my place is pretty clean. It’s just clean in a different way than what I grew up with and many folks are used to. My parents’ house was wiped down with bleach and other harsh chemicals, while mine is cleaned with eco-friendly products.

We’ve been somewhat indoctrinated to think that the acrid smell of bleach is the smell of “clean,” but the chemical found in bleach (sodium hypochlorite) and other household products, including mildew remover and toilet cleaner, can burn our skin, cause a host of respiratory and gastrointestinal problems, and may even be fatal.

My father, the most brilliant of scientists, will tell you that what matters are the amount, strength, and method of exposure to household chemicals. He’s right. Sodium hypochlorite is used to purify our drinking water (which, to me, seems dreadful and I wonder why we can’t just keep our water cleaner to begin with—but that’s for another post) and is a mighty powerful disinfectant. But what we must also consider are the toxic cocktails we’re whipping up when we mix bleach with, say, an ammonia-based cleaner. That causes the release of chloramines, generates hazardous fumes, and is part of the reason why the Environmental Protection Agency has found indoor air to be twice as polluted as outdoor air (a stat I have repeatedly recited).

Furthermore, we all have different tolerance levels. My sister is violently allergic to cats and pollen while I can’t even really conceive of what an allergy looks or feels like. The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t require companies to divulge the contents of their products or the concentrations with which they are used. This means the most vulnerable among us are exposed to potentially harmful substances that sit on our floors and countertops, cling in our air, and wash down our drains and toilets into our water supplies. (Just think about your pets or babies crawling around on floors cleaned with questionable contents, and then sticking their little hands and feet in their mouths.)

The Household Product Labeling Act, introduced into the House of Representatives this past summer, would require that household cleaning products and similar products bear full and accurate ingredient labels so we’d finally known the full contents of the products we use in our homes. Please contact your reps and let them know you support this effort. It’s ever more urgent now that a 2008 study published in Environmental Science & Technology by Dr. Mustafa Odabasi indicated (for the first time) that sodium hypochlorite and the cleaning agents (known as surfactants) and fragrances contained in several household cleaning products react within the product to create chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The study says these chlorinated compounds are released when we clean, that most of them are toxic and probable carcinogens, and that the indoor air concentrations increase anywhere from eight to 1,170 times while using products that contain bleach. The increase in chlorinated VOCs was lowest for plain bleach and highest for thick liquids and gels.

It’s absurd to think that all our efforts to be clean are actually making things dirty. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. I challenge you to redefine clean and seek out eco-friendly, non-toxic, phosphate-free cleaning products that reduce your exposure to toxins and limit the amount of poison released into our air, soil, and water.

The Environmental Working Group tested the umbilical cord blood of a random sampling of American babies and found an average of 200 chemicals transmitted in utero. You can just imagine what the chemical body burden of an average adult might be if babies start off so compromised. Personally? I am a Seventh Generation junkie. They are a good company constantly trying to do better. They treat their staff well, care about where and how their materials are sourced (see their new palm oil initiative), want their consumers to be informed, and, most importantly, have products that work. (Who wants to clean twice as hard to get half the results just to win a green star on behalf of the planet? Not many.)

Seventh Generation paid me to moderate their chemical body burden and palm oil panels but I would never accept money to endorse their products. I’ve used them for much longer than I’ve been in the public eye and I am sharing their name here because I think the information is useful. I celebrate the companies that think about all aspects of their business. Seventh Generation embodies that for me. (But they are not perfect. The last time I saw the CEO I went on a mini-tirade about the chlorine-free feminine hygiene products that they mysteriously shroud in plastic!)

Photo by Jessica Sain-Baird.

Look at what you’re buying. Look at what your dollars are supporting. For me, it’s a disconnect to buy slightly cheaper green products from a company that makes most of its money making toxic ones. No one I know, except my mother and sister, cleans as well as I do. I hope one day to become one of those uber-eco angels who whips up her own cleaning products out of baking soda, lemon juice, and vinegar because they are so much cheaper than anything on the market and really do make the whole house feel so much healthier.

Clean and Green

I’ll make brewing my own cleaning products my resolution for 2011. In the interim, find my clean, green musings on Twitter @simransethi and check out incredibly comprehensive information on household cleaning products in the book Home Safe Home by Debra Lynn Dadd.

Simran
Eco-friendly home remodeling and care with environmental journalist Simran Sethi.

Aspartame the Sweet Deception

2010-08-06T06:36:00.000-07:00

Greetings from "My Right to Safe Food"

An article that appeared in DNA newspaper on Aug 5th 2010 " Sugar substitutes are not all bad' by Dr Rajeshwari Kanakiraman, is nothing but Sweet deception. I have been receiving calls/ emails from safe food campaigners to counter the claims made by Dr Rajeshwari and to give consumers safe informed choices. Hence, this attempt to share my perspective based on scientific facts/ links given below. After which i leave this to the readers and to their better judgment.

Dr Rajeshwari happens to be a endocrinologist and diabetologist from a reputed hospital in Bangalore is misleading innocent consumers. Her facts needs be corrected. Only an an ignoramus endocrinologist will endorse artificial sweeteners and encourage the usage to diabetics and dieters. No wonder we breed a sick society where doctors like her endorse such dangerous excitotoxins as safe. The damage is there to see with India being rated as a diabetic capital in the world. 40.9 million people in India are diabetic. By the year 2025 there will be 7 million new diabetic cases in the world to quote International Diabetic Federation Findings & WHO

It is quite concerning and disturbing that doctors like her fail to keep abreast nor carry out in depth research before lending their voice. By promoting industrial toxic foods, the well being of fellow human beings is of least consequence. I have also addressed this earlier alerting consumers on Aspartame in Sugar Free and Diet soda. Hope these potent links baring out significant truths by reputed doctors repairs this incorrect information and damage.

1. http://www.whale.to/v/Aspartame_Truth.pdf,

2. Another revelation in this link from a leading newspaper An Overdue Ban On A Dangerous Sweetener by Samuel S. Epstein (Cancer prevention expert, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois in Chicago Posted: August 3, 2009 03:01 PM)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samuel-s-epstein/an-overdue-ban-on-a-dange_b_250249.html

For more details on the story of how aspartame made it through the FDA approval process despite warning signs of potential health hazards and alleged scientific fraud, please watch the 60-Minutes report, as Wallace does a nice job of summarizing an otherwise long story.

Your Brain on Aspartame

In the Sweet Misery video above, Dr. Russell Blaylock, a recently retired board-certified neurosurgeon and author of the book Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, says that because aspartame is "a poison that affects protein synthesis; affects how the synapses operate in the brain, and affects DNA, it can affect numerous organs. So you can get many different symptoms that seem unconnected."

He's referring to a Department of Health and Human Services report that categorizes 10,000 adverse reaction reports logged by the FDA (Department of Health and Human Services Quarterly Report on Adverse Reactions Associated with Aspartame Ingestion, DHHS, Washington, DC, October 1, 1986), published here in a 24-page primer on aspartame by Donald Harkins [ix], the former editor and publisher of the Idaho Observer.

Two years prior to that, a CDC MMWR dated November 2, 1984 [x] , discusses several hundred adverse reaction reports received, and at that time, the majority -- 67 percent - of complainants also reported neurological/behavioral symptoms.Some of the most commonly reported neurological symptoms include: *Headaches*Changes in behavior or mood *"Fuzzy" thinking*Seizures *Depression[xi]

3. http://devinder-sharma.blogspot.com/2010/07/beware-of-aminosweet-sugar-substitutes.html

4. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/3/11/one-woman-s-astonishing-experiment-with-aspartame.aspx?aid=CD12

Some excerpts from this link

There is so much evidence showing aspartame to be a potentially deadly agent that several prominent, well-educated doctors and even judges have written books on the subject. Victoria Inness-Brown’s family was addicted to diet soda. After researching the effects of aspartame, she strongly believed the artificial sweetener might one day lead to their illness or even their early deaths. So she decided to perform her own aspartame experiment -- with 108 rats for 2 years and 8 months. Daily, she fed some of the rats the equivalent, for their body weight, of two-thirds the aspartame contained in 8-oz of diet soda. Eleven of the females who took aspartame -- 37 percent -- developed tumors, some of massive size. learn more

Sold commercially under names like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, Equal-Measure and Canderel, aspartame can be found in more than 6,000 products, including:

Diet sodas, juice drinks, and flavored waters
Chewing gum
Table-top sweeteners
Diet and diabetic foods
Breakfast cereals, such as Fiber One
Fiber supplements, such as orange flavored Metamucil
Jams and Sweets
It’s even found in vitamins, as well as prescription and over the-counter drugs such as Alka Seltzer Plus, and some Tylenol medications.

Need I say more, this is the assault in our food chain. Wake up before its too late.

In solidarity

Sangita Sharma
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here are few excerpts from Dr Blaylock on the politics behind promoting artificial sweeteners - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samuel-s-epstein/an-overdue-ban-on-a-dange_b_250249.html

Mike: What about the American Diabetes Association? Given that aspartame actually promotes obesity, based a lot of the work you've uncovered, I find it curious that the ADA so strongly supports aspartame.

Dr. Blaylock: I don't, considering they receive huge amounts of money from the makers of aspartame. They fund their walk-a-thon and all that kind of stuff, so they get tremendous amounts of money from the makers of aspartame, and money talks.

Whether they're just deluding themselves and choosing not to believe it's toxic, refusing to look at the evidence, or they're just concerned about the money and could care less, I don't know, but when you look at the pathophysiology of diabetes and the effect of aspartame, it's absolute nonsense for anybody who has diabetes to be on aspartame. Particularly in a neurological aspect, it's going to make it a lot worse.

Mike: What about other popular chemical sweeteners like sucralose in Splenda?

Dr. Blaylock: There's really not a lot of research in those areas. They have some basic research, like with Splenda, showing thymus suppression. If that holds up in other research, it's a major concern. If you're suppressing the thymus gland in a child, that's affecting the future of their immune function. You can increase everything from autoimmunity to producing immune-related diseases, to infections and cancers. The implications of thymus gland suppression are enormous.

There have been reports of miscarriages associated with Splenda in experimental animals. The problem is, we don't have a lot of well-conducted studies on Splenda to ferret these things out, and they're not going to do them. The best way to protect your product is to never test it, or just to set up some phony tests and report it in a journal that's friendly to your point of view.

That's what they did with certain vaccines. They did thousands of phony studies and waved them around, claiming nothing was found. You can design any study to find whatever you want. Particularly, you can design it to have negative results. That's the easiest thing to do.

Mike: We've got government health officials telling us mercury is safe and we've got big business telling us both aspartame and MSG are safe. It sounds like every poison in the food supply or in organized medicine is perfectly safe.

Dr. Blaylock: We did that with lead. When they first started questioning the safety of lead, the levels they said were safe were just enormously high, and then a mere 10 years later, suddenly we're finding out that lead is toxic at 10 micrograms/L. In the '60s, they were fighting over the same thing. The defenders of gasoline-added lead were saying lead wasn't toxic, except in extremely high doses. Then neuroscience literature was contradicting them, but nobody would listen. Finally, the weight of the evidence was so overwhelming that they found extremely low concentrations of lead were toxic and accumulate in the brain.

It's the same thing with mercury. Mercury is even more poisonous than lead. An infant is getting 150 times the dose of mercury than the EPA safety limits. A hundred times higher than the FDA safety limits. Here's a little baby that's getting 150 times higher a dose than the EPA says is safe for an adult.

Mike: What are the big points readers to take away? What do you think they need to remember in order to protect themselves?

Dr. Blaylock: You need to abstain from all of these things. Aspartame is not a necessary nutrient, and neither is MSG. The weight of the evidence is overwhelming. If you want to avoid obesity, metabolic syndrome, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, and if you don't want to make your cancer more aggressive, then you need to stay away from these products.

The damage affects pregnant women, unborn babies and newborns. It can produce changes in the brain that are irreversible, depending on when it is stopped. What we've found is that it reprograms.

The Truth About Aspartame, MSG and Excitotoxins the wiring of the brain, particularly the hypothalamus, so it doesn't function normally. These children are abnormal for the rest of their lives in terms of their physiological function.

Mike: Well, hopefully the weight of this evidence will someday become overwhelming, and government regulators will listen to you.

Dr. Blaylock: The pressure on researchers is so enormous. Dr. Trocho came out with his research about the DNA damage by aspartame. Then his career was assaulted by the makers of aspartame. He said he would never do another research project concerning aspartame. Well, a number of researchers have said the same thing. Once they published their results, the full weight of these companies come down on their head. NutraSweet will contribute millions to a university and threaten to pull their donations if someone isn't quieted.

Mike: So there's blatant scientific censorship at work here.

Dr. Blaylock: There's blatant, and then there's just understood. You have NutraSweet manufacturers donating several million dollars to your university. The director of that laboratory, or the president of the university, will just quietly let them know that they'd really like to see such negative research come to a stop.

The biochemical editor of the Chemical Abstracts Service, Dr. John Yiamounuyiannis, went through that with fluoride. They fired him because he refused to be quiet about fluoride toxicity, and they had just received this huge grant from Colgate-Palmolive. His supervisor said, "We'll lose our grant if you don't get quiet about fluoride." He wouldn't, and they fired him. Researchers know this.

Mike: I want to commend you for being willing to stand up and tell the truth about all of this. I think you're doing a great, positive service to public-health.

Dr. Blaylock: You're the one doing the service, because you're putting the word out there. Without you, I would just be sitting in a room fussing at the walls. It's people like you that get this word out and let people know what's going on in the world.

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Avoid this Popular Beverage Until You Learn the Shocking

2010-08-03T07:18:00.000-07:00

Acidophilus - This dying warrior

Food is very sacred to me. As George Bernard Shaw once aptly said: "There is no sincerer love than the love of food." But unfortunately the flourishing food and beverage processing industry does not see it this way. Milk is just one such tampered product. The links below are sent to me by my well wishers and practitioners of REAL RAW MILK. This triggered to pen my experience and share my research findings. When ailing children along with agitated mothers, fellow workers, associates suffer, the first thing i advice them is to stop drinking pasteurised milk off the shelf, more so, to avoid the commercial milk and yogurt in well designed branded tetra packs. Not to forget the menace of synthetic milk here in our country, see this link Adulterated milk -- Why is the dairy industry and consumers silent?

I am not against safe dairy produce. I relish cheese, wholesome butter, ghee, lacto-fermented beverages all made at home. But one also heeds the advice from experts to rule out dairy intake completely from certain diets for medical reasons. For instance - Link Between Cow's Milk Consumption And Risk Of Diabetes Type 1 by Dr. Ben Kim on Jun 01, 2009 - http://www.drbenkim.com/diabetes-type-1-dairy.htm,

The source of most commercial milk is the modern Holstein,* bred to produce huge quantities of milk--three times as much as the indigenous old-fashioned cow. But this cow has been made to fast disappear and rendered useless for many reasons, which i will not get into. The Jersey/holstein breeds of cows need special feed and antibiotics to keep her well. Her milk contains high levels of growth hormone from her pituitary gland, even when she is spared the indignities of genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone to push her to the udder limits of milk production. Fortunately GM milk was prohibited from entering India in 2003, thanks to the prompt and proactive action taken by prominent activists in India upon seeing the hue and cry raised in the West at the onslaught of mad cow disease.

Well if you believe that drinking pasteurized milk is healthy, then think again. Let me inform you, it is devoid of nutrition. We have been taught that pasteurization is beneficial, a method of protecting ourselves against infections. The process is not as hygienic and sanitised as it is made out to be. Secondly, most outbreaks of salmonella have occurred in pasteurized milk. Thirdly, heat alters milk's amino acids lystrosine making the whole complex less available, it promotes rancidity and destruction of vitamins. Unfortunately raw milk is at the heart of the battle for food freedom. The milk lobby is so powerful just like the food processing lobby. A hogwash of constant media badgering impressing benefits on pasteurisation to innocent consumers is nothing but a conspiracy. If you do not believe me, then read this link - www.westonaprice.org/.../1929-fda-steps-up-enforcement-against-raw-milk.html - Cached

But do you really believe that milk can last up to six months? Ultra-high temperature processing milk in 1 liter in Tetra Pack, six months shelf life so boldly advertised!!! For lack of time and common sense, consumers fail to question, reason, let alone research the well camouflaged tetra packs containing milk. These ultrapasteurized milk products, lowfat milk, skimmed milk, powdered milk or imitation milk products and tetra packed milk and yogurt are worse. Milk that has been given a shelf life for months is filled with lethal additives, emulsifiers to make it last longer. How else would it last?

Consumers live in sheer illusion. Mothers especially out of sheer concern and ignorance insist that their children drink pasteurized milk daily. Children are brain washed to drink two glasses a day to get their intake of calcium. Many children are lactose-intolerant and still being forced to drink pasturised unsafe milk. The educated adults indulge and succumb to their weak senses forced by patterns of habits. They convince themselves that a hot glass of the pasteurised milk helps wipe out acidity or aids in a good night's rest, doing themselves more damage. This white commercial culprit only breaks down your immunities. Most mothers are up in arms when i say this. As if I gain by depriving children, instead just wake up and lash out at the crafty culprits who are doing this to you.

My experience of several years of propagating and using organic real raw milk in my tea/coffee has been benefiting. Since we have lactating cows that graze and pasture in our pesticide free farm, NO hormones injected to increase the milk and the feed provided is from safe sources. Therefore drinking raw milk feels lighter on my system as it contains beneficial bacteria such as lactobacillus acidophilus, vitamins, enzymes and has the finest sources of calcium. There is substantial research proving raw milk benefits. Most important, raw milk has not been pasteurized, which is a violent, rapid-heating process that has a very detrimental effect on the proteins in the milk. A slow, gentle heating on your stovetop will more effectively preserve the integrity of fragile milk proteins. Read this link - http://www.realmilk.com/what.html and this http://www.seedsofhealth.co.uk/articles/milk_alive_well_england.shtml. However, a piece of caution to us Indians - Please do not indulge in raw milk unless the source of your milk is thoroughly verified. Given the assault in the food chain and adulteration that can happen at a blink, its best to avoid it.

One of the prime reasons for illnesses is when Lactobacillus acidophilus, the friendly flora(bacteria) available from real raw milk, yogurt, lacto-fermented beverages that lines our intestines to fight diseases is dying a quick death. Acidophilus relieves bad breath, foul smelling feces, detoxifies harmful chemicals, and reduces the risk of cancer and tumors. Our gastrointestinal tract consists of over 400 different kinds of bacteria. Our body needs this beneficial bacteria to be able to manufacture B vitamins, antibacterial substances, and to produce lactase. The human digestive tract maintains a balance of good and bad micro organisms. The 'microflora' is healthy micro organism that resides in the digestive tract. As people grow older, the proportion of healthy microflora declines, and therefore it can't effectively protect us from certain diseases. That is why we need more acidophilus. Please read facts in these links - http://www.ehow.com/facts_5138432_benefits-lactobacillus-acidophilus.html, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-acidophilus.html

But what is most concerning, today our children and youth are depleted of this healthy "microflora" due to the toxicity in the foods they consume. These friendly warriors as i call them helps maintain our intestinal health and serves as a natural antibiotic. So it is imperative to provide it in the form of a nutritional supplement to maintain the 'normal' balance of good bacteria in the intestines. Lactobacillus acidophilus has been reported to provide excellent therapeutic benefits. When you buy supplements off the pharmacies once the bottle is opened please ensure you store it in the refrigerator as its live bacteria. is My family, farmers, pets all get a friendly dose of it and the outcome is we are a happy bunch of us. Just do a google search and read its benefits.

But first a basic question- what is the shelf life of milk? Why is India's commonly used practice of using "FRESH" being thrown out of the window? We Indians grew up seeing our grand parents drink raw milk directly from the udders of cows, freshly extracted and drunk. Nutritious, no wonder they live a wholesome century. They stored milk a minimum of 24 hrs depending on climatic conditions and if it did curdle, it was used effectively. The curdled milk was never thrown away. Traditional diets used it for sour dough making delicious bread and more. But currently it is flushed down without a thought. I use curdled milk all the time as it has the large amounts of rich lacto basicillus.

Now for some alternatives, My Right to Safe Food gives you just that - safe solutions. Two simple alternatives, Be prepared to shift the gears in your mind, if you wish to bring back harmony and good health in your homes.

Since the democratic right to consume chosen real foods has been taken away from us. It is up to consumers who are keen on real dairy produce and wish for safe sources to make simple efforts and start a healthy trend.
1. Find out in your own location whether you live in an apartment block or a muhalla - You are sure to find a gwala(cowherd) who has a cow adopt them both. Get a few like minded people together to share costs, ensure a regular supply of nutritious feed, help maintain the hygiene of the gwala and the cow, take turns in keeping a vigilant eye during milking times - morning and evening. Senior citizens will certainly take pride in being suitably occupied. A good way to educate children to connect back to nature and remove their fallacy that milk comes from cows and not refrigerators! Then indulge in safe real raw milk. You/family not only benefit but aid in sustaining a livelihood of a farmer and save a cow from being either slaughtered or starved yet milked till it drops.

Not all is lost should you decide to take charge and start with a daily dosage of Acidophilus with pectin, check with the pharmacies and get the equivalent.

A home made remedy to increase the friendly flora acidophilus in the intestines is to make lots of yogurt. Take a muslin cloth put the yogurt and stand it in a jar for the night to extract the whey. The solidified yogurt can be transformed into mouth watering cheese. Add in a zest of aromatic medicinal herbs like rosemary, garlic, sea rock salt and stir well. A delicious spread is ready. It can be used for salads, dressings and more. Do not throw away the whey it contains masses of acidophillus. Whey being a superb form of easily digestible and efficiently absorbed form of protein. Store it in your refrigerator and daily serve a quarter of a glass with a little salt as its nice and sour.

Different kinds of salads can be prepared at Ishana. Mothers are just amazed when their children tuck away at the salads and breads at Ishana farms. This salad contains most home grown produce from lettuce, rucola, tomatoes, carrots, brocolli par steamed and green gram sprouts along with sea weed leeched gently(ensure its crunchy and not overdone) and some sunflower seeds. They are tossed in flaxseed and olive oil with a zest of lime along with this sumptuous cheese dressing. It is so wholesome that its like a meal in itself and yet so light and refreshing. The nutritious value is worth every effort. Apart from the acidophillus, it contains all vital vitamins C, A, D, beta carotene, proteins and trace minerals. I would never trade this lifestyle for any other. Would you?

2. Second alternative to milk is time tested millet based beverages and foods.

My farmers and me indulge in ragi malts and ragi mudday( balls) dipped in delicious curries delicately prepared. Each day our cuisine ranges from jowar, bajra, ragi rotis. One of my prime farmer woman Sharada is a classic example of the strength and energy she derives out of her staple diet Ragi. Her work is equivalent to that of two farmers. Absolutely amazing.

There is abundance of research carried out by the Millet Network of India. It was delight to visit them in Zaheerabad a few years back during the Shankranti festival. Millets are so easily available here in Bangalore. Millet provides nutrition for the babies from six months onwards. Millet are so easily digestible, and has a lot of nutritional values. From a year onwards, children can take hard foods like Ragi, Brerraka roti and Jowar roti. Should you want recipes, then view these links - http://www.milletindia.org/cuisines-recipes.asp. The Millet Recipes for 6 months to 6 years of age is also made available. As rightly said in this booklet " The cost of half kg Cerelac is 120 rupees where as the Millet costs only 30/40 rupees. Cerelac is artificial which is available in the market, we can feed our babies home made Millet which can keep our babies much more active, healthy and energetic".

Unravelling truths about the milk you ingest, it makes me livid, so should you. Have the courage to stand up and question the food product manufacturers, boycott their products. They laugh their ways to the bank all at your expense. Demand from the policy makers who get away scott free. They need to be held accountable.

Wake up to your traditional diets, they are time tested. Need I say more!

In solidarity

Sangita Sharma
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Avoid this Popular Beverage Until You Learn the Shocking

Conventional wisdom states that drinking milk causes an increase in phlegm. Scientists have generally dismissed the notion, though, since experiments do not seem to bear it out. In one study, researchers noted that even people who were inoculated with the common cold virus did not show any increase in symptoms when they drank milk.
>
> But a new report suggests that those earlier studies suffered from a critical flaw: not all milk is the same.
>
> Certain breeds of cows produce milk containing a protein called beta-CM-7. This protein can stimulate mucus glands in both your digestive- and respiratory tracts.
>
> Milk containing the beta-CM-7 protein could therefore very well stimulate phlegm -- particularly in people who suffer from chronic lung conditions.
> Sources:
>
> New York Times April 12, 2010
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/health/13real.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
>
> Medical Hypotheses April 2010; 74(4):732-4
>
> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19932941
>
> First of all, please understand that I do not recommend drinking pasteurized milk of any kind – ever. Because once milk has been pasteurized it’s more or less “dead,” and offers little in terms of real nutritional value to anyone, whether you show signs of intolerance to the milk or not.
>
> Valuable enzymes are destroyed, vitamins (such as A, C, B6 and B12) are diminished, fragile milk proteins are radically transformed from health nurturing to unnatural amino acid configurations that can actually worsen your health. Finally the eradication of beneficial bacteria through the pasteurization process actually ends up promoting pathogens.
>
> The healthy alternative to pasteurized milk is raw milk, which is an outstanding source of nutrients including beneficial bacteria such as lactobacillus acidophilus, vitamins and enzymes, and it is, in my estimation, one of the finest sources of calcium available.
>
> Raw milk is generally not associated with the health problems linked to pasteurized milk, and even people who have been allergic to pasteurized milk for many years can typically tolerate and even thrive on raw milk.
>
> However, some people may still experience problems, such as upper respiratory congestion, when drinking raw milk, and the difference between the breeds of cows the milk comes from appears to hold the answer.
> Different Cows = Different Milk
>
> This is an issue you may never have heard of unless you’re familiar with the bovine industry, or have done a fair amount of research on milk. But there are actually distinct differences in the milk produced by various breeds of dairy cows.
>
> So-called A1 cows are “newer” breeds that experienced a mutation of a particular amino acid some 5,000 years ago, whereas A2 cows are the older breeds that do not have this mutation.
>
> As Thomas Cowan, MD, a founding board member of the Weston A. Price Foundation explains in his article Devil in the Milk, milk consists of three parts:
>
> * Butterfat,
> * Whey and
> * Milk solids
>
> The milk solids consist of a variety of proteins, lactose and other sugars. One of these proteins is called beta-casein, and this is the protein of interest when comparing A1 and A2 milk.
>
> All proteins are long chains of amino acids. Beta casein is a chain of 229 amino acids. A2 cows produce this protein with a proline at number 67, whereas A1 cows have a mutated proline amino acid, which converts it to histidine.
>
> The proline in A2 milk has a strong bond to another small protein called BCM 7, which helps keep it from being released.
>
> Histidine (the mutated protein), on the other hand, only weakly holds on to BCM 7, so it is liberated in the GI tract of animals and humans who drink A1 cow milk. Now, BCM7 is a powerful opiate that can have a very detrimental impact on your body.
>
> As discussed in the article above, it is likely the cause of increased phlegm production in your digestive- and respiratory tract, which can worsen upper respiratory problems.
>
> This confirms previous findings, discussed in Keith Woodford’s book Devil in the Milk: Illness, Health and the Politics of A1 and A2 Milk.
>
> In it he writes that BCM 7 selectively binds to the epithelial cells in mucus membranes and stimulates mucus secretion.
>
> But that’s not all. BCM7 has also been implicated in other far more serious health problems, such as:
>
> * Type 1 diabetes
> * Neurological impairment, including autism and schizophrenia
> * Impaired immune function
> * Autoimmune disease
> * Heart disease
>
> For those of you who want to investigate this at greater depth, betacasein.net offers a comprehensive list of published scientific studies of the differences between A1 and A2 milk and their health ramifications.
>
> .
> The US Raises Mainly the “Wrong” Cows…
>
> A1 cows include the black and white breeds like Holsteins and Friesians. Unfortunately, Holsteins are one of the most popular breeds in North America.
>
> The older breeds, such as Jersey’s, Guernsey, Asian and African are primarily A2’s. Goats and sheep also produce the healthier A2 type milk.
>
> “Our issue in America is that we have the wrong cows,” Dr. Cowan writes.
>
> “When you take A1 cow milk away, and stimulate our own endorphins instead of the toxic opiate of BCM 7, some amazing health benefits ensue.
>
> One saving grace, as expressed in The Devil in the Milk, is that the absorption of BCM 7 is much less in people with a healthy GI tract... BCM 7 is also not found in goat’s or sheep’s milk, so these types of milk might be better tolerated.
>
> … We now have one more thing to put on our activism to-do list. Dr. Woodford explains that it is fairly straightforward to switch a herd to become an all A2 herd. No genetic engineering is needed, no fancy tests, just one simple test of the beta-casein and it can be done.
>
> Hopefully, when this becomes widespread we will end up with a truly safe and healthy milk supply.”
>
> Naturally, getting America’s dairy farmers to start switching breeds would require a massive campaign, but in the meantime, just being aware of this inherent difference between A1 and A2 milk can prove to be invaluable for many, especially if you have tried switching to raw milk and still experience problems with it.
>
> You may simply be drinking milk from an A1 breed… Switching to milk from an A2 breed could make a significant difference.
>
> This is also an important point for dairy farmers everywhere to at least consider, as A1 cattle may still not be producing the healthiest milk for human consumption, even when grass-fed.
> How to Find Truly Healthy Milk
>
> Depending on where you live, A2 milk may not be that hard to find. In fact, herds in much of Asia, Africa, and parts of Southern Europe still produce primarily A2 milk.
>
> If you live in the United States, New Zealand, Australia or other areas of Europe, however, you’ll need to look a bit harder since the majority of cattle in these areas are A1 breeds.
>
> As you know, I advocate getting your raw milk from a local dairy farmer that raises cattle organically, letting his livestock graze on fresh grasses. So to ensure the milk you’re getting is A2 milk -- the type that has not been associated with illness and instead appears to have numerous health benefits – you’d just have to ask what kind of breed he raises. (Remember, A2 breeds include Jersey, Guernsey, Asian and African cows.)
>
> Buying retail (in those states where raw milk sale is legal) would require just a little more work, since you’d have to get the contact information of the milk supplier and then call or write them to find out what breeds are used.
>
> Fortunately, grass-fed, raw milk almost always comes from small dairy farms that do not co-mingle their milk with milk from other farms, so this makes ensuring you’re buying A2 milk quite a bit easier.
>
> You can use the following link to find out the status of raw milk where you live.
>
> http://realmilk.com/happening-other.html
>
> Yet another option is raw goat- and sheep’s milk, as neither of them contains the harmful BCM-7.
>

Hope this Seed bill 2010 is farmer friendly

2010-06-10T12:03:00.000-07:00

Greetings from "My Right to Safe Food"

"Seed" the most unassuming potent gift of life that which is most sacred to me is under siege and assault. I have been consistently alerting and raising alarms about safeguarding traditional organic seeds. SEEDS THE KERNEL OF LIFE ITSELF, THE SOURCE OF OUR FOOD, WHEN CONTAMINATED, HAVE AN ADVERSE EFFECT ON OUR HEALTH AND THE HEALTH OF OUR PLANET. Resulting in a very sick society. Exactly, the state of affairs in our country! Devastating as it may sound but this is the hard core truth.

Seeds cannot be imprisoned by the yoke of legality to be patented by laboratories, to be modified or sterilized by transnationals or for that matter the property of a handful of corporations. Biodiversity is a planetary heritage, which is the fruit of the work of hundreds of generations of rural farmers. This heritage does not belong to anyone in particular: it is a legacy for the future.

“Seeds belong to no one it is a gift of life to life itself”.

The objective of the greed driven seed corporations are to make farmers dependent on them. So that each year farmers have to purchase sterile seeds along with their corresponding chemical fertilizers and pesticides at obnoxious costs. Mounting farmers’ debts and deaths is primarily the outcome of farmers having to adopt these intensive corrosive methods.

After 60 odd years of Independence, the monthly average income of a farmer remains a paltry sum of Rs 2100, far below the poverty line. Yet, he is expected to purchase industry driven manipulated seeds, not replicable and that too at unaffordable costs. A chaprasi (clerk) in a government office is far better off than a farmer. He earns a sizable amount of Rs 10,000 with perks like medical, bonus, leave benefits, thanks to the sixth pay commission. But the backbone of our economy - "the farmer who feeds this nation" is not considered worthy of any State benefit expected only to live off credits. No wonder the balance and harmony that once prevailed is at the brink of disaster.

Seed freedom goes far beyond freedom for the farmer from corporations. It indicates freedom of diverse cultures from centralised control.

Please read below, why agriculture is not sustainable. With a faulty seed bill craftily designed to fill industry coffers, neither food security measures nor the overall health of the nation is of any consequence to policy makers. Who is to suffer apart from the ones producing it, consumers, of course!!!

Just recall... not so long ago, each day was an occasion to celebrate like festivals serving local home-made nutritional recipes. Tradition and grandeur was followed by conforming to our wise ancestral heritage. Which is why chronic diseases were far and few in number! Primarily because soil and traditional seeds were nurtured with so much care and devotion. Both the soil and seeds once rich in minerals and micro nutrients are fast being made to disappear, thanks to the dictats of seed corporations and faulty seed policies.

The result being each day now is tagged by a disease like the World Cancer day, World Hypertension day, World Diabetic day, World Heart day, World BP day to name a few. Many more diseases unheard off are being unveiled with gusto by medical experts further encashed by the pharmaceutical industry. Masses of monies are spent on medical research to provide remedies/cures through advertising drugs and hospitals supposedly to combat pain and suffering. The ground reality is that most drugs provide short term relief which in turn reduces immunities. It suppresses the disease only to accelerate the cause making it chronic because the food you eat is not giving you the required nutrition. By then, you are drugged for life. When food is devoid of nutrition, worse still toxic, no worth in gold can save you.

At gatherings the medications that provide relief against minor and major ailments is the topic of discussion. Every second house i peer into has a cancer patient. To a headache, cold or fever you pop medicines like never before and surrender yourselves to doctors ( with no offense to genuine medical experts). Patience is no longer a virtue. Appalling to witness the ease with which you make your bodies so readily available for trails as human experimental guinea pigs. You choose to do this for you no longer have any faith in yourself, nor the time to connect with your source, nor exercise any will to control your senses.

As long as you sit quiet and pretty tight with no time to question the source of your food, prepare yourself to suffer new outbreak of diseases.

In solidarity
Sangita Sharma
http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/
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http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20100615&filename=news&sec_id=4&sid=1

Seed bill retake
Monitor seed prices, not just quality, say farmer groups
Jyotika Sood
Divya

THE Union agriculture ministry will redraft the seed bill following complaints by MPs, states and farmer groups. Their main grouse is that the bill, which aims to regulate the quality of seeds, does not monitor their prices, crucial for farmers.

The Seed Bill 2010 was approved by the Cabinet in March and was to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha in mid-April. Sources in the ministry said MPs and state government have suggested over 100 amendments.

The bill, first drafted in 2004, updates the Seed Act of 1966 to address two main changes: genetically modified seeds and the entry of private and foreign seed companies. Farmers and seed producers contest its provisions on price, accountability and distribution of regulatory powers between the Centre and states. Andhra Pradesh—the seed production capital of India—is backing farmer groups (see: Andhra wishlist). On May 3, state agriculture minister N Raghuveera Reddy led a delegation of 15 MPs and farmer groups to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The delegation also met Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Unregulated price

At present, most states do not control the prices of seeds sold by hybrid seed companies.

The companies fix their own prices. They often exploit farmers, said D Narasimha Reddy, chief adviser with Chetana Society of farmers and activists in Andhra Pradesh. “It has been six years (since the 2004 draft) and the Centre has failed to include a clause related to seed price, which should be the essence of the bill,” he said.

Seed producers oppose this.

The National Seed Association of India, a group of over 200 seed producers, said price controls—by Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, for example—are making hybrid seed business unsustainable. According to the association, the seed industry has invested more than Rs 6,000 crore in research and infrastructure over the past 20 years.

Research and development involved in developing hybrids along with the challenges of weather makes it a high-risk business—the chance of developing a product that is successful in the market is less than 50 per cent, it said.

Inadequate compensation, penalty

The seed bill proposes setting up a national committee to compensate farmers in case seeds fail to perform as promised. Farmer groups argue that a national compensation committee is too distant and expensive for small farmers. How can small farmers access it when their grievances are not properly addressed at the state level, asked M Kodand Reddy, chairperson of the Andhra Pradesh Kisan and Mazdoor Congress. He suggested a district-level committee.

Proposed penalties for misbranding or selling substandard seeds include a fine of Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000. This is too small for a seed producer earning crores of rupees, said an official in the Andhra Pradesh agriculture department.

Inspector raj

The bill gives seed inspectors the power to take samples from anyone selling, buying or transporting seeds. The inspector can even search and seize seeds without a warrant. Such unbridled power, many fear, would give rise to a bureaucracy with farmers at the receiving end.

The seed bill also affects Centre-state politics by limiting states’ role in seed regulation—states will have limited membership in the central seed committee, the main regulatory body. “Agriculture is a state subject. How can state governments be deprived of substantial power to take decisions?” asked Reddy.

Another concern is that the bill by allowing import of seeds may turn farmers’ fields into sites for experiments. ngos and farmer groups are asking that imported seeds be first tested and certified and then sold to farmers.

World Environment Day: Its all About Market, Stupid!

2010-06-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

By Devinder Sharma - June 5th 2010

I don't have to remind you. You know it already. Today is the World Environment Day. Your newspaper has suddenly gone green. Some of them have even changed the colour of the headlines to green. Your TV channel is talking about those who made the difference. Many TV channels are digging out visual stuff from across the globe to show how much they care.

Schools and colleges have debates on the subject, and some even hold rallies. Most of the debates in the elite schools are being sponsored by USAID, DFID and the corporate houses. Political leaders will plant saplings. You will be told 'each-one-plant-one'. If you escape planting a sapling, some NGOs will catch you to tell you to go for rainwater harvesting.

How could you then have missed it?

Of course we cannot protect our planet without the support and collaboration from one and all. Prime Minister will appeal the nation to join the movement to protect environment. All through the year, the government brings in policies that unabashedly destroys the environment. But on this 'auspicious' day, they make a resolve to save the environment. Somehow I get an impression that the government thinks that its job is to plunder, and the task to save the environment is that of the people.

Not only the government, which operates through the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), but almost all official bodies and agencies do the same. The other day the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) organised a conference on biodiversity. At the fag end of the two-day conference they had a session on 'Role of farmers, NGOs, Civil Society in Biodiversity Conservation'. I was amused. To me it appears as if the task to save biodiversity is only that of the civil society and farmers. ICAR's job is to destroy biodiversity.

We launch programmes and project to create awareness about environment protection. The phrase they use is 'capacity building'. You will invariably see that the 'capacity building' exercise is always limited to the poor and marginalised. I wonder when will we begin 'capacity building' of bureaucrats, policy makers, politicians, journalists and the business and industrial leaders? The problem is not at the level of the ordinary citizen but among the people who matter. If the elite and the opinion leaders were to be sensitized, the economic and political discourse can change, and change for the better.

We are a great nation. All through the year we destroy the environment. In our misplaced emphasis on GDP, we plunder the natural resources. In the name of increasing crop yields we bring in technologies and products that sap the Earth and eventually kill farmers. In the name of development, we actually exploit, and exploit ruthlessly. In case you missed it, I draw your attention to one of my articles that I wrote when Tsunami struck India. Tsunami, Mangroves and Market Economy: http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/jan/dsh-tsunami.htm

And then one day -- June 5 -- we want to give an impression as if everything has changed. The goalpost has shifted. As if we have learnt from our mistakes.

The next day, June 6, life is back as usual.

In many ways this is related to our religious thinking and attitude. Perhaps the nation's psyche is in many ways similar to what I see among the devout Hindus. All through their life they commit sin after sin (I am talking of most of them). We all know for instance we are a corrupt nation where every other man on the street is strikingly corrupt. Much of our economic growth is the outcome of corruption. The obscene wealth you see displayed during marriages is a reflection of how corrupt the family has been. We have no regret in even seeking bribe in the name of the dead. We have no guilt in even driving the people through our direct actions to even death.

We have no remorse. We know we can take a trip to the holy Ganges once in a year or so, take a dip and we will be free of our sins.

Mera Bharat Mahaan !

Why is that the world celebrates World Environment Day with such fervour? The answer is simple. The entire exercise is funded by companies engaged in selling green technologies. This is an opportunity for the $ 200 billion industry to showcase its hardware. No wonder, already leaders of the G-8 economies are talking of ushering in a Green Technology Revolution on the lines of Green Revolution. Therefore, the reason why your favourite newspapers have gone green for a day, your TV channel has suddenly become conscious of environment, your policy makers are talking green is simply because of the power of money and advertisement.

It's all about market, stupid !

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The joy of growing your own food

2010-05-17T23:24:00.000-07:00

Greetings from "My Right to Safe Food"

I am still here, allow me to fill you in for this short bout of silence. You will agree that raising concerns about the assault in our food chain is just not enough but implementing and executing safe natural food production techniques in our fields is the need of the hour. So I have been at it....

The joy of growing my own food and then having the luxury to pick my choice each day is a dream for many. And then to have the aroma of cooking nature's farm fresh produce delicately prepared and sharing is energising in itself. Trust me its arms reach, not a colossal task. Like i have always said "home gardening and farming is no rocket science". If i can do it, so can you. Just start.

Have you ever wondered how a forest continues to remain so green, lush, aromatic consistently supplying rich abundance to its residents? Yes, provided it is untouched by the one and only greedy species called the Human Race.

Apply the same principle of a forest to your fields or kitchen garden and watch the magic of abundance reap nutritional diversity. The forest does it off its own accord, it did not need the human touch. Nature's diversity of leaves and fruits( bio mass) drop, animals wander leaving their excreta and footprints which gradually aid the biomass to decompose leaving the soil rich and nourished.

How, I sincerely wish the human race can understand this simple logic and not complicate this eco science - "When the soil is nurtured, infused with the right amount of natural nutrients with no manipulation, seeds germinate so healthy only to provide abundance of fruits". This rationale applied by our Vedic agricultural sciences spanning for over 15,000 years was a proof in itself, yet we have discarded this valuable science all in the name of "New technological progress in Science". Progress in science has to be in harmony with nature but not at her expense out to destroy her very existence. Rather every time we take from her, help rejuvenate her.

It is a National shame to be losing such a rich heritage of science only because a callous attitude exists amidst consumers. Majority do not have the time or wish to find out the origin of their food chain!!! You are made to believe in the science of the intense corrosive green revolution techniques of chemicals and pesticides to generate your food without questioning it. So you blindly follow and not challenge agriculturists nor the government nor industry for getting away by providing you pesticide laden food. Then on top of it, you now wish to believe that an infant science like Genetic engineering in our food chain, one filled with lethal toxins - insecticides and herbicides is the answer to our food security. You think its some one else's problem not yours to produce food but the least you can do is stand up for your right to safe food to prevent living in a sick society.

Who says organic does not yield high? Seeing is believing, so look at the images attached, they are not from the National Geographic, neither are they ornamental! This biodiversity is purposely being kept away from you and you do not even know! High in nutritional value but not out of reach. Explore and you will find. Right here, grown in our small farms across India. Hope they whet your appetite and inspire you to start. A single plant can yield so much fruit? Yes, it is true and that too without any pest attacks. Why, because "soil and seeds are sacred to us'". Most important we are not greedy and care for what we eat, nothing is wasted. We save OP organic seeds, make them available and the flesh of fruits recycled and transformed to conserves, jams, pickles and more.... and the excess food crop sold to closest retail organic stores to avoid carbon foot prints.

Unfortunately farmers and agriculture institutes are instilled and so habituated to pumping and applying massive amounts of chemicals to extract every ounce from the soil and believe that there is no other alternative. Thanks to our faulty agriculture policies and education systems. Worse still how the greed and profit driven industry is allowed to acquire biodiversity and nature's resources like as if it were their birth right. Wake up and think again. This heritage is yours too.

Like I always say in my sessions to the varied audience - marginal farmers, agriculturists, environmentalists, students, doctors and scientists " The soil is symbolic of an expectant mother and the seed is symbolic of a child". Nurture the mother as in the soil, and enrich her with balanced nutrients starting with crop rotation. And after each crop give her a booster by broadcasting green manuring techniques. Application of diverse legumes are nothing but green manuring techniques. So a diversity of legumes like cow pea, sun hemp, dencha, chickpea, beans and perhaps a millet like ragi, all mixed in equal portions can be sowed either on your raised bed or fields or kitchen garden. The various micro and phyto nutrients and minerals it brings with it to the soil is just incredible. Now, how simple is that? Let this grow for 20 days days, prior flowering cut the greens with the roots intact, mulch with a dash of spray of panchkavya and Effective micro organisms (EM) so as to hasten the process of decomposition. The microbial activity at work in the soil is rapid and that too free of cost! Smell your soil thereafter.....Divine.

Time and again each day I witness the nostalgia of many visitors who visit my farm after seeing the diversity of fruits and their yields.. I insist that they feel and smell the soil in their palms of their hands and taste the fruit only to say " Vow...smells like the rich forest soil, this is what i grew up in, this brings back a wave of memories". Do not stash this away as only a memory, it us up to you to revive and safeguard it for keeps.

In solidarity

Sangita Sharma
http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/

The dark underbelly of India Inc

2010-04-27T08:53:00.000-07:00

Read on...

At a time when India faces the biggest threat to its sovereignty from within, and I mean the rise of Maoism that we witness across the country, more than a hundred representatives of various people’s movements and social campaigns came together in a meeting held at Swaraj Vidyapeeth campus, Allahabad, on March 27-28. They discussed India’s present crisis in depth. It was unanimously decided that all people’s movements and social campaigns should come together to launch a nationwide people’s movement to face the present challenges.

I missed being at the two-day conclave. But reading the minutes of the meeting, I feel sad the powers that be refuse to see the real cause for the uprising. In fact, I have always said that the Indian political leadership (and to quite an extent that of the national media as well) is actually serving the commercial interest of big business. Somehow an impression is being given, and the urban middle class laps it up, that the people who have picked up guns are the new breed of terrorists, and that the bullet is the only answer.

It was at this conference that the well-known RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal made some observations, recalling a few incidents from the days when he was working in the Income Tax department. It gives us an insight into the ways of corporate swindle, that actually is at the base of the present crisis that we face.

"We raided more than 80 MNCs and caught all the foreign managers. They used to show lower salaries and evade taxes in India. Companies like Sony, Mitsubishi, etc., evaded crores of rupees in taxes. When we recorded their statement they said they did not know our laws. When we raided the Nippon airways executive, we recovered minutes of their meeting from his bag which has mentioned that when any Japanese official comes to India, he should not show his salary more than Rs. 10 lakh. When we raided the Denso India executive, he threatened us we are here to help your poor country, we control your Parliament and we can get any law passed. I didn’t believe it at that time. We will get all you transferred.

"Three days after the Japanese ambassador met the finance minister and told that we will withdraw all aid if these people are not transferred, and we were transferred. When UPA ministry was falling, then all MPs were saleable and I felt that there is no price of our vote. I felt that the US can buy them and Japan also.

When the Nuclear Liability Bill was introduced, it said that the total liability of any operator company will be 500 crore rupees only. When we see all things together, we are confronted with a horror story that our country is not independent. As long as we do not control our country, our Parliament will keep making 100 such laws in a day. So this is not democracy. We should strive for direct democracy. A law should not be passed unless it is approved by two-thirds of the gram sabhas. As long as gram sabhas or mohalla sabhas, i.e., primary-level local communities do not get the control, things will not change."

Yesterday, when I read another interview of Arvind Kejriwal in the Deccan Herald (April 25, 2010), it reminded me of the Allahabad declaration. In this interview, entitled: "Gram Sabha should be empowered," Arvind talks about the need to empower the gram sabhas, in the absence of which people are losing faith in the system of governance and might take up arms "or even join Maoists as it had happened in Lohandigoda in Chhatisgarh."

To know more, I read on. This is what Arvind says in response to a question:

If you don't empower people at the grass-root level, they will turn to naxalism. Like it happened in the villages of Lohandigoda in Chhatisgarh, where the Tata group had sought permission from the government to set up a Sponge iron plant. From the State Government level to the mukhiya, the proposal was cleared. But the local people were up in arms and were in no mood to give up their land or allow cutting of trees. So they submitted a 15-point charter of demands which included plantation of five saplings for each tree cut. But their demand was rejected out-right. Eventually, the entire 13 villages reportedly turned to naxalism.

What Arvind narrates is a true reflection of the flawed development model that is being thrust upon the people. I haven't seen any national TV channel even daring to make a mention of such destructive development that is pushed in the name of economic growth. It is therefore very important that the nation wakes up to the realities, and does not unleash a war against it own people who are victims of the 'process of development' that has been aggressively unleashed since June 1991.

The dark underbelly of Tata's and for that matter scores of Indian and foreign business concerns is at the root of the naxal uprising. We cannot muffle the voices of the people by setting up a school here or a health center there under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a concept that the UN promotes. The corporate social responsibility must begin where it actually sows the seeds of revolt. The need therefore is to empower Gram Sabhas, and to ensure that the decision of the village through the democratic process is final and binding. Even the Prime Minister should not have the right to over-rule the decisions of the Gram Sabhas.

Posted By Devinder Sharma to Ground Reality at 4/26/2010 09:40:00 AM

View these links that give the real scenario of a thriving industrial India at the cost of marginal poor!

# Industry thrives on massive subsidies - http://devinder-sharma.blogspot.com/2010/04/industry-thrives-on-masive-subsidies.html
# India's Shameful Paradox of Plenty - http://devinder-sharma.blogspot.com/2010/04/indias-shameful-paradox-of-plenty.html

The Barbaric Ways of Micro-finance by Devinder Sharma

2010-04-20T20:29:00.000-07:00

Greetings My Right to Safe Food

Please read below the grim ground realities and crafty agendas of micro finance institutes(MFI's)brought consistently to light by Devinder Sharma. The garb of extending support to self help women or the rural poor is quite appalling. The outrage and debates ensued by the supporters of MFI's following exposure reflects the mental sterility of a society we live in driven by greed devoid of a conscience.

It is hard to digest for these profit mongers. When this news was shared some time back on my blog, the heated debates and reactions by some entrepreneurs and the new supporters of the safe food movement was quite something. Some were applying and acquiring jobs with the notion of helping the rural but when I pointed out the exploitation by the MFI's bearing sordid details, it was in question and overlooked!

If you do not believe me, please read the New York Times report "Banks Making Big Profits From Tiny Loans" only endorses what we have been saying. You can read the full report at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/world/14microfinance.html?scp=1&sq=microcredit&st=cse

The whole motives behind MFI's has been dissected by Devinder Sharma "Banks make big money from poorest".

To quote Devinder "Sharks come in different sizes. 'Loan sharks' too are available in different shapes and sizes. But when the going gets tough, the smaller among the 'loan sharks' start crying foul. This is a usual phenomenon.

It is therefore amusing when Muhammad Yunus, who won a Nobel Peace prize in 2006, cries foul. The New York Times (April 14, 2010) quoted him saying: “We created microcredit to fight the loan sharks; we didn’t create microcredit to encourage new loan sharks,” According to NYT, Mr. Yunus was recently addressing a gathering of financial officials at the United Nations. “Microcredit should be seen as an opportunity to help people get out of poverty in a business way, but not as an opportunity to make money out of poor people.

Look who is talking?

The man who started Grameen Bank, which is a pioneering institution for organised money lending, and is making tonnes of money by exploiting the poor, is now howling".

It is not only banks elsewhere which make money from the poor. In India too, it is in many ways the poorest of the poor who sustain the banks. Read the details in this link http://devinder-sharma.blogspot.com/2010/04/banks-make-big-money-from-poorest.html

The Barbaric Ways of Micro-finance

The ugly face of micro-finance was never in question. But now even the dark underbelly is coming out in the open. I wonder how much more evidence is required to put a stop to this barbarian activity that goes on unchecked in the name of empowering the poorest of the poor.

Yes, most MFIs operate in an inhuman and barbaric way. In fact, as you have read in these columns the entire concept of micro-finance is based on exploitation.

As a Hyderabad dateline news report in The Hindu (April 19, 2010) states: "Some Collectors sent reports about the harassment of borrowers, intimidation, manhandling, abusing and outraging the modesty of women and extreme punishment like making defaulters stand in the hot sun, tying them to trees and making them run in open grounds."

What more evidence is required.

We call these poor 'beneficiaries'. They fit into the classic model of exploitation that the late C K Prahalad envisioned. They are the "fortune at the bottom of the pyramid" which Prahalad very cleverly camouflaged in the guise of 'eradicating poverty' but actually provided a recipe for making huge profits. There may be some sensible suggestions that he gave, but rest of it was simply on how to exploit the poor and make money. No wonder, the crooks in business and trade have always held him in high esteem.

These poor have been earlier victims in the hands of private money lenders and now the organised class of highly educated (often hailing from the prestigious management schools) money lenders. They have suffered silently for years, and are now being subjected to all kinds of physical and mental torture by the MFIs. They live in perpetual mental agony, always under pressure to repay (on a weekly basis) the heavy compound interest on petty loans.

What do you expect these poor people to do?

I will not be surprised if many of them eventually join the ranks of Maoists.

Here is the disturbing news report, under the seemingly less damaging headline: Andhra Pradesh -- State for de-recognition of MFIs. It says that the MFIs are accused of forcibly enrolling poor women in the rural areas. Some Collectors' reports cite intimidation, manhandling, and outraging modesty of women

Andhra Pradesh -- State for de-recognition of MFIs.
http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/19/stories/2010041960410600.htm

by Ravi Reddy

HYDERABAD: As the spectre of coercive recovery practices, lack of transparency and questionable acts of some micro finance institutions (MFIs) looms large once again after a gap of four years, the Andhra Pradesh government plans to approach the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seeking their de-recognition.

Following reports of objectionable practices of MFIs in harassing borrowers in rural areas of in Khammam, Mahabubnagar, Warangal and several Coastal Andhra districts, the government has drafted a letter to the RBI seeking de-recognition of the erring MFIs, which will be despatched in a day or two.

The 40 MFIs operating in the State with total finance portfolio of Rs. 3,000 crore are accused of forcibly enrolling poor women in the rural areas even though a majority of them are already part of the carefully nurtured Self Help Groups (SHGs) under the banner of Indira Kranti Patham.

Principal Secretary, Rural Development, R. Subramanyam told The Hindu on Saturday that the MFIs were back to their old tricks forcing the government to act fast. “They (MFIs) are violating norms by enrolling SHG members and claiming them as their own. They are not disclosing the list of members and resorting to coercive recovery practices,” he said.

Some Collectors sent reports about the harassment of borrowers, intimidation, manhandling, abusing and outraging the modesty of women and extreme punishment like making defaulters stand in the hot sun, tying them to trees and making them run in open grounds.

The State had witnessed a similar situation in 2005-06, when borrowers, caught in the debt trap, ended their lives. This forced the YSR Government to appoint a one man committee headed by a senior IAS officer V.P.Jauhari. He had recommended the government to crack the whip on the MFIs for grossly violating the human rights of borrowers in the name of loan recovery and enactment of Money Lenders Act to rein in the MFIs.

Strange modus operandi

The modus operandi is to lure SHG members into taking loans ranging from Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 25,000 at 15 per cent flat interest rate, which results in an effective rate of 33 per cent per annum on a declining balance. There is no loan appraisal or analysis of the borrower's source of income and repayment capacity. Lending institutions are least bothered about pre-existing loans taken from banks, SHGs, other MFIs and unregistered moneylenders.

Mr. Subramanyam said the government had set up district-level task force headed by the Collector to look into each case of coercion. “Harassed borrowers can call up 24X7 Call Centre (number 155321) to report their woes,” he added. Apart from this, the government plans to identify at least three mandal level SHG federations and ten Village Organisations in each district for bulk loaning to provide relief to the poor women.

Alarming - Pesticides found in mother’s milk

2010-04-16T04:19:00.000-07:00

Greetings from "My Right to Safe Food"

A few days ago News 24 TV channel had a 30 min prog on this startling news report from Ganganagar dist in Rajasthan that showed doctors saying that the level of pesticides in mothers milk has gone so high that children are falling sick. Please read below. When doctors advise mothers to stop feeding new born with their milk, the children recover. Doctors ascribe it to high pesticides content in mothers milk.

It is most imperative to BAN PESTICIDES first and not let the issue be side tracked. It is devastating to hear that mothers have been advised to stop breast feeding which is most critical to a child's growth and well being. Further advantage will be taken by MNC's like Nestle after having invaded our rural villages centuries ago to promote their baby food products as an alternative to breast feeding!
It is infuriating and disturbing to watch the plight of millions of new mothers educated or illiterate seeking pediatric help today. Only because they do not wish to breast feed their new born. Instead they get so carried away by the cleverly marketed baby products which only leads to the child's deteriorating immunities as infants are most susceptible and vulnerable to attacks.

Both doctors and mothers have to find healthy solutions but to be advised to stop breast feeding since mother's milk has gone toxic is not on and not the solution. Address the urgent issue at hand "BAN PESTICIDES".

It is the moral responsibility of doctors too to research viable healthy alternatives rather than provide quick fix solutions. It is damaging as it can be misinterpreted that mother's milk can be substituted only adding to the coffers of the manufacturers of processed baby foods.

Yesterday, I did share this news in my session with Intel. Like i said "A massive assault has unleashed in our food chain with no accountabilities on the part of policy makers, and worse still consumers remain the mute spectators.

Consumers( Mothers) have got to wake up to this startling fact, raise a hue and cry against Pesticides but not stop breast feeding!

In solidarity

Sangita Sharma
http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/

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Pesticides found in mother’s milk

Now, it seems pesticides have contaminated even mother’s milk. Researchers from Rajasthan University have found an alarming presence of organochlorine pesticides in the blood and milk samples collected from lactating women in Anupgarh town in Rajasthan’s Ganganagar district. Anupgarh is known for extensive use of pesticides in farming.

Anupgarh, located near the Indo-Pak border, has Asia’s largest foodgrain industry. It has a population of 29,548 (2001 census). Faculty at Rajasthan University’s zoologydepartment, Inderpal Soni, told TOI that organochlorine pesticides are reported to be lipophilic (ability of a chemical compound to dissolve in fats) and their presence in human milk and blood has been documented in different parts of the world.
Soni said newborns exposed to pesticides are highly vulnerable as their stamina and ability to concentrate get affected. They may also suffer from memory loss. “It also causes poor growth with several other abnormalities,” she said.

“We collected and examined blood and milk samples of 50 lactating women, divided them into four groups on the basis of different living standards — area of residence, dietary habits, working conditions and addiction to tobacco,” she said. The level of total organochlorine pesticides in blood ranged from 3.319 to 6.253 mg/l while in milk samples, it ranged from 3.209 to 4.608 mg/l. She said that greater pesticide residue was found in the samples of women from rural areas compared to those in urban areas.

Another researcher said that synthetic organic pesticides have been of tremendous benefit to man but their excessive use has caused considerable harm. Like in this case, the contaminated milk is taking a toll on infants.Even after the shocking revelation in the research project, the sale of pesticide continues

-------------------------------------------

The Food, Inc. Horror Movie

2010-03-31T03:20:00.000-07:00

Greetings from "My Right to Safe Food"

When I watched this documentary a while back, I was horrified, it left me feeling outraged. Worse still to see the plight of a courageous young mother fighting a legal battle seeking justice when the fate of her two year old child was sealed after consuming a hamburger! You may not wish to believe this, then watch this staggering documentary Food, Inc, if you have not already done so.

This is the plight of gullible consumers all over the globe who knowingly or unknowingly leave their fate to the mercy of a handful of MNC's who dictate our food chain. Each day I watch zillions throng the dubious Fast Food chains striding there with such gusto. Not the slightest of doubt inhibits these consumers be it nutrition nor the safety aspect instead they ingest what is being dished out with much pride. While the West is being cautious, the East is adapting to their unhealthy patterns with such ease. The attitude is "After all they are reputed brands Mac Donalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and more....so it must be safe!"

The poorest people are worst hit and hurt because fast processed is cheap food, artificially cheapened by a relentless drive for cost-cutting and efficiency-saving including the maltreatment of workers and animals. As for our country, adulteration of almost the entire food chain is taking new leaps....lentils notoriously mixed with fodder grains cheaply imported. So, if the prices drop, there is tendency to believe that the woes are being heard by crafty policy makers.

Farmers in our country, who once was the pride, now reduced to a begging bowl is so insignificant. Yet I am frequently asked about their welfare in my sessions " If the farmers accept Bt Cotton seeds or for that matter high yielding hybrid seeds and benefits from them, then, why are farmers committing suicides? My answer - The marketing rationale used by the muscle of industry is bound to succeed no matter what the end product is. A direct marketing approach is applied " Offer FREE (sterile) seeds along with corresponding FREE pesticides/herbicides for a season or a year with value additions of "service with a smile" an offer of technical support till such crop yields. Both the soil and seeds by then are so contaminated, with this carrot dangled the lured gullible farmer thinks " BENEFITS"only. So off he goes back to the seed corporate for his seeds the following year expecting the same service, only to discover that he now has a choice either to extol a ludicrous amount (take credit) to purchase seeds along with the corresponding chemicals or Hang himself. That is how suicides happen.

As for consumers - you are left to wonder where the equation has gone wrong? Why the escalating price rise? Why does one have to dole out more? Simple - A once self contained and sustainable economy is now fast reduced to an importing economy. When you import, you hasten unemployment. With a faulty farm policy by the so called custodians of our country, whose faulty vision is to drive farmers, fast out of their fields. Thereon, their land is usurped in the name of progress in science and technology!

As for publicity - the media, government, MNC's ensure that one gets to read and hear only such stories that fill their coffers and not that of the farmers! While consumers suffer price hikes in essential food commodities, since time needed to educate themselves on the source of food is of little consequence, therefore the choice is none other than face the onslaught of diseases.

Following which, a whole chain of industries vastly stand to benefit with this magnanimous generous support to build the empire of pharmacies, hospitals and the insurance companies who laugh their way to their banks. Why blame anyone for it?

When the power house of energies "your bodies and minds" is treated like a dustbin, then what is to be expected? This voice of reason and anger is dead. A scary plight.

As mentioned below "Food, Inc. ends on a hopeful note that consumers can change things through purchasing power. After all, Wall Mart, the world’s top retailer, has taken the lead in rejecting recombinant bovine growth hormone milk because the customers don’t like it. And it is now stocking organic grass-fed meat because the customers want it. So, it is down to consumer choice and triumph of the ‘free-market’; an altogether too rosy view.".

Wake up, watch out and take charge of your food

In solidarity

Sangita Sharma
http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/
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The Food, Inc. Horror Movie

A film that exposes how the corporate food industry sickens and enslaves the nation, but leaves many stones unturned. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

A fully referenced version of this review is posted on ISIS members’ website and may be downloaded here

MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT EXPLICIT PERMISSION. FOR PERMISSION, AND REPRODUCTION REQUIREMENTS, PLEASE CONTACT ISIS. WHERE PERMISSION IS GRANTED ALL LINKS MUST REMAIN UNCHANGED

Food on film: The poster for filmmaker Robert Kenner's 'Food, Inc.' features a bar-coded cow

Modern Times taken to logical conclusion

It looks like a scene from Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 movie Modern Times, only worse. The assembly lines process factory-farmed chicken carcasses, hog carcasses, and gigantic extrusions of ground up cattle to feed the supermarket shelves and the fast-growing fast food industry. The workers are illegal immigrants bussed in from Mexico or elsewhere, paid inhuman wages, and then turned in to the police when surplus to requirement.

Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Kenner’s documentary Food, Inc. [1], nominated for the 82nd Academy Awards, is intent on exposing the graphic horrors of the food we eat, starting in the USA.

The narrators are well-known food critics and journalists: Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation. They take us on a forbidden journey behind the sanitized cling film-wrapped packages of meat and gleaming tomatoes.

We are inside a henhouse stuffed solid with chickens, having found the only farmer brave enough to show it on film and risk offending the corporations that sell farmers the housing and buy the chickens raised. Our depressed, “beyond caring” but defiant farmer says she has had to use such large quantities of antibiotics that she herself has become “immune” to them.

We spy cattle feedlots out in the open, equally crowded with animals unable to move; we catch a furtive glimpse of a horribly crippled cow about to meet its fate in the slaughterhouse lot.

Hens, hogs, cattle, all meat-producing machines spending the best part of their nasty, brutish and short lives knee-deep in their own faeces till they are mercifully culled; and before they collapse under their own weight or from some unknown illness. It’s enough to turn your stomach, if not turn you into a vegan outright.

But wait, things can be difference

An idyllic scene of contented cows grazing in green pastures on a farm in Virginia; the farmer tells you cows are herbivores meant to eat grass. “They don’t eat corn or dead cows or chicken manure.” He says. Hogs and chickens roam freely and happily. All animals are slaughtered right there out in the open, and sold direct to customers, one man having driven 5 hours for the privilege.

The authorities tried to close the farm down, but the farmer had scientists test the animals and certify that his had ten times less bacteria than those in the big slaughterhouse.

What’s so bad about grain-fed cows?

One of the consequences of feeding grain such as corn to cows is that because grain is not easy to digest, it remains in the stomach and grow bacteria, including the deadly E. coli 0157. A two year-old boy died after eating an infected hamburger. It led to the recall of enough ground beef to feed the whole nation. Remember the assembly line where tonnes of ground cattle are made into hamburger patties? One infected cow contaminates the whole lot.

Fast-food & the obesity epidemic

Food-borne illnesses like E. coli and Salmonella outbreaks are on the rise, but they pale in comparison to the obesity epidemic that has gripped the nation, and indeed the globe, whenever and wherever the fast food industry has infiltrated. And it is the poorest people who get hurt the most because fast food is cheap food, artificially cheapened by a relentless drive for cost-cutting and efficiency-saving including the maltreatment of workers and animals, by corporate control and consolidation of the food chain, and by huge public subsidies on agriculture.

The scene cuts to an American Latino family of four with only one dollar to spend on lunch but must pay hundreds on drugs each month to keep the father’s illness under control. Yes, cheap fast food does make you obese and obesity is the single most important risk factor for diabetes, also an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease and cancer. As fast food consumption increases, so obesity rises in all age and ethnic groups, and most worrying, type 2 diabetes appears in children and adolescents.

Why does fast food make people fat? It is high in all the usual culprits: sugar, fats, carbohydrates, salt and numerous artificial additives and food colourings [2] (Food Colouring Confirmed Bad for Children. Food Standards Agency Refuses to Act , SiS 36). However, further investigations on my part revealed that a ubiquitous ingredient in fast food, monosodium glutamate, used as flavour enhancer and appetite stimulant, actually increased weight gain in mice and humans. That is just one among many other pieces of relevant information left out of the film (see Box), which completes the devastating picture of the false profits and true costs of food incorporated.

Corporate agri- and food business in the USA accounts for more than 12 percent of the nation’s GDP. It is subsidized by the taxpayer at $180 billion a year, some 12 percent of the sector’s total value. A quick calculation indicates that 83.3 percent of the subsidies go to the big agribusiness and food corporations, and only 16.7 percent go to the farmers, making up half of the farmers’ net income.

Cheap food is profitable for corporations, but the price is steep for the rest of society, quite apart from the subsidies. Food borne illnesses are estimated to cost more than $35 billion a year in medical care and lost productivity. But that is dwarfed by obesity, estimated at US $140 billion a year in extra medical spending alone, not counting lost productivity due to illnesses and deaths.

False profits and true costs of food inc

Global food retails sales are about $4 trillion annually, with supermarkets/hypermarkets accounting for the largest share of sales (more than 50 percent).

Walmart is world’s top retailer [3]

The US food and fibre market contributed $1.24 trillion, or 12.3 percent to US GDP and accounted for 16.7 percent of its total employment in 2001 [4]

In 2005, the US government paid $180 billion in direct and indirect subsidies to agriculture (equivalent to 11.8 percent of the total food and fibre market that year). This consisted of more than $30 billion in direct payments to US farmers, and $150 billion indirect subsidies, including tax breaks on fuel and equipment, tariffs, protective pricing, drought loss payments and purchasing surpluses. The biggest recipients are the largest corporate farmers and commodity giants like Cargill and ADM, agrichemical and seed suppliers like Monsanto and Dupont, Fanjui family’s Florida Crystals sugar empire and meat producers Tyson and Smithfield [5].

According to Daniel T. Gristwold, director of the Center for Trade Policy of the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, over the past 20 years, farm programmes have cost US non-farm households a cumulative $1.7 trillion [6]

Net farm income is forecast to be US$63 billion in 2010, up $6.7 billion (11.8 percent) from 2009, but $1.4 below the average of $64.5 billion in the previous 10 year [7]

James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank (1995-2005), estimated the total annual global agricultural subsidy at $350 billion, nearly $1 billion a day, representing 50 percent of net farm income in the US and the EU. If subsidies were not in place, US farmers would need to double their prices to make a living [5]

· USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) estimated total food expenditures for all food consumed in the United States was $1.16 trillion in 2008; spending away from home was $565 billion; of which, restaurants accounted for $440 billion [8]

· The US fast food industry is worth $240 billion a year [9]

· An estimated 76 million cases of food borne illness are reported in the US each year (26 000 per 100 000 of the population), resulting in 323 914 hospitalizations and 5 194 deaths [10], costing the nation more than $35 billion in medical care and lost productivity

· Obesity is increasing in all age and ethnic groups; in children and adolescents, the prevalence of being overweight rose by 50 percent between 1995 and 2005. A study involving 3031 young adults both black and white found those with frequent visits to fast food restaurants gained an extra 4.5 kg body weight and had a 104 percent greater increase in insulin resistance [11]

· Obesity rates increased by 37 percent between 1998 and 2006, from 18.3 to 24.1 percent of population; the cost of extra annual medical spending due to obesity reached $147 billion in 2008 [12]

· One ingredient, monosodium glutamate (MSG), used as flavour enhancer and appetite stimulant in practically all fast foods, is routinely injected into mice to create obese mice in laboratories [13]. A study on 750 Chinese men and women aged between 40 and 59 in three rural villages in north and south China showed that people who use MSG in their food are more likely to be overweight or obese, even though they have the same amount of physical activity and total calorie intake than people who don’t use it [14]
> What has allowed food inc. to happen?
>
> There is a revolving door between US government regulators and agri-food corporations, all but one have declined to be interviewed for the film.
>
> From off-stage, Monsanto casts a long dark shadow. The biotech corporation has been allowed to build a monopoly on patented genetically modified (GM) seeds, and planted them on 90 percent of the nation’s soybean, corn and cotton fields in just 13 years. It is allowed to harass and intimidate farmers, not just for saving its GM seeds illegally, but for patent infringement, should a farmer choose not to grow GM crops, and the non-GM crop becomes contaminated, inevitably, by the neighbours’ GM seeds or pollen.

Not only has Monsanto et al prevented GM products in the supermarket from being labelled, so no one can say whether GM food has harmed people, some states have enacted a food libel law that forbids anyone to say bad things about a food product that leads to loss of profit for the food industry.

If you think food was bad enough before GM, you should prepare for worse, though Food, Inc does not touch on the subject. There is now a substantial body of evidence indicating that genetic modification may be inherently hazardous. Whenever and wherever independent studies are carried out to test the effects of GM feed on animals, scientists find increased illnesses, sterility or deaths; moreover, they find the same problems when the raw data from studies submitted by the companies to get approval for their GM crops are reanalysed; and farmers and farm workers are witnessing the same happening in the fields [15] (GM is Dangerous and Futile, SiS 40). The raw data from companies are obtainable only through the law courts, as they are routinely kept secret as ‘commercial business information’
>
> A farmer who has stubbornly held out against planting GM crops had problems finding a seed cleaner for his non-GM seeds. When he finally found one, the seed cleaner was sued by Monsanto, and under extreme duress, settled out of court.
>
> It is shocking that a nation that regards itself as a model of democracy should allow its people to be victimized by corporate serfdom. It is also surprising that there has been no popular movement against Monsanto et al. The recent victory against the introduction of Monsanto’s GM egg plant (Bt brinjal) in India is an inspiration. It shows what a coalition of grassroots non-government organisations, farmers, honest scientists, local politicians, and consumers can achieve [16].
> Will Wall Mart save our food?
>
> Food, Inc. ends on a hopeful note that consumers can change things through purchasing power. After all, Wall Mart, the world’s top retailer, has taken the lead in rejecting recombinant bovine growth hormone milk because the customers don’t like it. And it is now stocking organic grass-fed meat because the customers want it.
>
> So, it is down to consumer choice and triumph of the ‘free-market’; an altogether too rosy view. What about the poor families that cannot afford to buy organic? What choice is there for them? What about the farmers that can’t get non-GM seeds and whose organic crops get contaminated by their neighbours’ GM crops so they lose their organic certification?
>
> Farmers need to be supported by food and farming cooperatives
>
> Consumer demand for organic produce is indeed rising and outstripping supply, yet farmers are not converting to organic; not even when the country is in fact facing an ecological meltdown from its GM crops [17] (GM Crops Facing Meltdown in the USA, SiS 46), another aspect that Food, Inc. does not go into. The three major crops, soybean, corn and cotton, genetically modified for just two traits, herbicide tolerance and insect resistance, are ravaged by super weeds and secondary pests as farmers fight a losing battle with more of the same.
>
> US farmers are isolated from one another, from consumers, and from the entire food chain. They are simply not receiving enough support from society in general. One model that has worked well is a food and farming cooperative based on macrobiotic principles operating in Italy [18] Cooperative for Health, Food Security and Environment Against the Credit Crunch (SiS 42). This could help implement the fundamental shift to organic farming practices that would put an end to the Food Inc., horror, deliver good health and nutrition to the nation, and much more besides [19, 20] (Food Futures Now: *Organic *Sustainable *Fossil Fuel Free , ISIS publication; Organic Agriculture and Localized Food & Energy Systems for Mitigating Climate , SiS40)

Dr. Craig Holdrege of the Nature Institute based in New York, USA, has initiated a project on Unintended Effects of Genetic Manipulation http://natureinstitute.org/nontarget/

The magic healing potion " Wheatgrass"

2010-03-28T03:11:00.000-07:00

Greetings from "My Right to Safe Food"

Each time well researched and informative articles like this surfaces, it brings back a stream of practices adopted at different points in our lives.

I recall ever since I relocated a decade ago, my sister Amita an avid safe food practitioner, her constant endevour was to introduce a healthy regime into our lives. We would find her experimenting on her researches and implementing them in her lifestyle.. Through her enthusiasm we became familiar with several home made potent remedies and healing recipes that I will unfold shortly.

The highlight today is wheatgrass, we watched the trays of wheat grass sown with much care and then a few days later to find it germinating beautifully. Then spread them further on to raised beds making it available to everyone of us.

"Here is a magic potent, a powerful detoxifier and liver and blood protector that will strengthen our immunities", she would willfully convince us to ensure we had 2 oz of wheatgrass every morning on an empty stomach. When the taste got a bit unpalatable to some of the family members she would then cleverly add a dash of fresh apple juice to make it taste delicious. Her perseverance through all these years is admirable. I must confess, every time she introduces a novel health potion absolutely unheard off, at first, the reaction would be one of "Oh no, now what next?" , it would then be followed with an indepth debate to convince us of her wisdom. She never took no for an answer. It took us a while to cotton on that by following her simple steadfast natural solutions we were all able to stay fit and healthy. I cannot thank her enough. Which only reminds me that i must continue this practise of growing wheatgrass.

As rightly said by Ann Wigmore below "The enzymes and amino acids found in wheat grass can protect us from carcinogens like no other food or medicine can. It strengthens our cells, detoxifies the liver, bloodstream, and chemically neutralizes environmental pollutants". Anne Wigmore was the first to investigate and promote wheat grass juice and started the Hippocrates Institute. She included evidence in her books of the blood cleansing and building abilities of chlorophyll, it's effect on the circulatory system and role in detoxifying and regenerating the liver.

I also know of a safe food campaigner Sobha Golecha based in Chennai who for years now has been growing wheat grass and promoting its medicinal attributes. She cuts and delivers them to people who use it for curative purposes. The most wonderful aspect is that Shobha supplies wheat grass to cancer patients free. Absolutely remarkable.

A little effort with a zest of care will surely nurture your powerhouse of energies......

In solidarity

Sangita Sharma
http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/
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> The Benefits of Wheatgrass, by Ann Wigmore

AnnwigmoreThe Benefits of Wheatgrass
excerpts from The Wheatgrass Book by Dr. Ann Wigmore

WHEAT GRASS...... Increases red blood cell count, lowers blood pressure… It cleanses the blood, organs and gastrointestinal tract of debris. It stimulates metabolism and bodily enzyme systems in enriching the blood by increasing red blood cell count, and in dilating the blood pathways throughout the body, reducing blood pressure.

Stimulates the thyroid, correcting obesity, indigestion, etc. The thyroid gland is also stimulated and normalized by the use of wheatgrass juice – an important step toward the correction of obesity, indigestion and a host of other complaints.
Restores alkalinity to the blood… Wheatgrass has an alkalizing effect on the blood. Its abundance of alkaline minerals helps reduce over-acidity in the blood. It can be used to relieve many internal pains. It has been used successfully to treat peptic ulcers, ulcerative colitis, constipation, diarrhea, and other complaints of the gastrointestinal tract.
How to drink it… Dr. Ann Wigmore suggests drinking wheatgrass juice in small amounts throughout the course of the day, always on an empty or nearly empty stomach. In general, two to four ounces every day or two is sufficient. Slowly sipping small quantities of the juice gives your body an opportunity to get used to its taste and effect. Taking one or two-ounce drinks straight or mixed with other juices (fruit & vegetable) and sipping slowly will help prevent nausea or stomach upset. On a healing regime, Dr. Ann suggests you drink one or two oz., up to 3 or 4 times a day. And to take one day of rest a week.
Powerful detoxifier and liver and blood protector… The enzymes and amino acids found in wheatgrass can protect us from carcinogens like no other food or medicine can. It strengthens our cells, detoxifies the liver, bloodstream, and chemically neutralizes environmental pollutants.

Fights tumors and neutralizes toxins…. Recent studies show that wheatgrass juice has a powerful ability to fight tumors without the usual toxicity of drugs that also inhibit cell-destroying agents. The many active compounds found in grass juice can cleanse the blood and neutralize and digest toxins in our cells.
Whether you have a cut finger you want to heal, or you desire to lose five pounds… enzymes must do the actual work. The life and abilities of the enzymes found naturally in our bodies can be extended if we help them from the outside by adding exogenous enzymes, like the ones found in wheatgrass juice.
Remarkable similarity to our own blood… The 2nd important nutritional aspect of chlorophyll is its remarkable similarity to hemoglobin, the compound that carries oxygen in the blood. Dr. Hagiwara, a Japanese science and health educator, is a leading advocate for the use of grass as food and medicine. He reasons that since chlorophyll is soluble in fat particles, and since fat particles are absorbed directly into the blood via the lymphatic system, that chlorophyll can also be absorbed in this way. In other words, when the “blood” of plants is absorbed in humans it is transformed into human blood, which transports nutrients to every cell of the body.
Wheatgrass implants reverse damage from inside the lower bowel… In the case of illness, they stimulate a rapid cleansing of the lower bowel and draw out accumulations of debris. Hold for 20 minutes.
Externally eliminates itching almost immediately… Wheatgrass juice externally applied to the skin can help eliminate itching almost immediately.

It will soothe sunburned skin and also acts as a disinfectant.

Rubbed into the scalp before a shampoo, it will help mend damaged hair and
alleviate itchy, scaly scalp conditions.

*Wheatgrass juice is soothing and healing for cuts, burns, scrapes, rashes, poison ivy, athlete’s foot, insect bites, boils, sores , open ulcers, tumors & so on.As a sleep aid…
*Merely place a tray of living wheatgrass near the head of your bed. It will enhance the oxygen in the air and generate healthful negative ions to help you sleep more soundly.
*Use as a poultice and replace every two to four hours.Add some to your bath water and settle in for a nice, long soak.
*Gargle with wheatgrass to sweeten the breath and firm up and tighten gums.
*Don’t cook it… We can only get the benefits of the many enzymes found in grass by eating it uncooked. Cooking destroys 100 percent of the enzymes in food.
*Neutralizes toxins… Wheatgrass neutralizes toxic substances like cadmium,nicotine, strontium, mercury and polyvinyl chloride.
*The benefits of a liquid oxygen transfusion… Wheatgrass juice contains liquid oxygen. Oxygen is vital to many body processes: it stimulates digestion (the oxidation of food), clearer thinking (the brain utilizes 25 percent of the bodily oxygen supply), and protective oxygenation of the blood (a defense against anaerobic bacteria). Cancer cells cannot exist in the presence of oxygen.
* Turns gray hair to its natural color again, raises energy levels… Daily consumption of wheatgrass and sprouts can turn gray hair to its natural color again, and give you a limitless energy level.
*Beauty treatment that slows down the aging process… Wheatgrass will cleanse your blood and help rejuvenate aging cells, slowing the aging process down, way down, making you feel more alive now. It will help tighten loose and sagging skin.
*Lessens effect of radiation… One enzyme found in wheatgrass, SOD, lessens the effects of radiation and acts as an anti-inflammatory compound that may prevent cellular damage following heart attacks or exposure to irritants.

Restores fertility… Wheatgrass restores fertility and promotes youthfulness.

Just soaking in it can double your red blood cell count. Dr. Bernard Jensen found that none of the blood builders are superior to green juices and wheatgrass. In his book Chlorophyll Magic, from Living Plant Life, he mentions several cases where he was able to double the red blood cell count in a matter of days merely by having patients soak in a chlorophyll-water bath. Blood building results occur even more rapidly when patients drink green juices and wheatgrass regularly.

Ann Wigmore on her own experience with wheatgrass: “At fifty years of age my hair was gray, I had a terrible case of colitis and other colon problems, I suffered from low energy and had no clear direction in life. Out of desperation I turned to nature for relief… In wheatgrass, raw foods and exercise, I found what I feel is as close to the fountain of youth as we are going to get. Twenty-five years after my discovery, my hair was turned fully natural brown again. My weight has been a stable 119 and my energy level is limitless”

What’s So Great About Wheat Grass Juice?*

1. Wheatgrass juice is 70% chlorophyll.
2. Chlorophyll is the first product of light and contains more light energy than any other element.

3. Wheatgrass juice is a crude chlorophyll and can be taken orally and as a colon implant without toxic side effects.
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> 4. Chlorophyll is the basis of all plant life.
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> 5. Wheatgrass is high in oxygen like all green plants that contain chlorophyll. The brain and all body tissues function at an optimal level in a highly-oxygenated environment.
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> 6. Chlorophyll is anti-bacterial and can be used inside and outside the body as a healer.
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> 7. Dr. Bernard Jensen says that it only takes minutes to digest wheatgrass juice and uses up very little body energy.
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> 8. Science has proven that chlorophyll arrests growth and development of unfriendly bacteria.
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> 9. Chlorophyll (wheatgrass) rebuilds the blood stream. Studies of various animals have shown chlorophyll to be free of any toxic reaction. The red cell count was returned to normal with 4 to 5 days of the administration of chlorophyll, even in those animals which were known to be extremely anemic or low in red cell count.
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> 10. Farmers in the Midwest who have sterile cows and bulls put them on wheatgrass to restore fertility. (The high magnesium content in chlorophyll builds enzymes that restore the sex hormones.)
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> 11. Chlorophyll can be extracted from many plants, but wheatgrass is superior because it has been found to have over 100 elements needed by man. If grown in organic soil, it ab sorbs 92 of the known 102 minerals from the soil.
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> 12. Wheatgrass has what is called the grass juice factor, which has been shown to keep herbivorous animals alive indefinitely.
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> 13. Dr. Ann Wigmore has been helping people get well from chronic disorders for 30 years using wheatgrass.
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> 14. Liquid chlorophyll gets into the tissues, refines them, and makes them over.
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> 15. Wheatgrass juice is a superior detoxification agent compared to carrot juice and other fruits and vegetables. Dr. Earp Thomas, associate of Ann Wigmore, says that 15 pounds of wheatgrass is the equivalent of 350 pounds of carrots, lettuce, celery and so on.
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> 16. Liquid chlorophyll washes drug deposits from the body.
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> 17. Chlorophyll neutralizes toxins in the body.
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> 18. Chlorophyll helps purify the liver.
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> 19. Chlorophyll improves blood sugar problems.
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> 20. Wheatgrass juice cures acne and even removes scars after it has been ingested for seven to eight months. The diet must be improved at the same time.
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> 21. In The American Journal of Surgery (1940), Benjamin Cruskin, M.D., recommended chlorophyll to clear up foul-smelling odors, neutralize strep infections, heal wounds, hasten skin grafting, cure chronic sinusitis, over come chronic inner-ear inflammation and infections, reduce varicose veins and heal leg ulcers, eliminate impetigo and other scabby eruptions, heal rectal sores, successfully treat inflammation of the uterine cervix, get rid of parasitic vaginal infections, reduce typhoid fever, and cure advanced pyorrhea in many cases.
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> 22. Wheatgrass juice acts as a detergent in the body and is used as a body deodorant.
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> 23. A small amount of wheatgrass juice in the human diet prevents tooth decay.
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> 24. Wheatgrass juice held in the mouth for 5 minutes will eliminate toothaches and poisons from gums.
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> 25. Gargle with wheatgrass juice for a sore throat.
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> 26. Pyorrhea of the mouth: lay pulp of wheatgrass soaked in juice on diseased area in mouth or chew wheatgrass. Spit out out pulp.
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> 27. Drink wheatgrass juice for skin problems such as eczema or psoriasis.
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> 28. Wheatgrass juice keeps the hair from graying.
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> 29. By taking wheatgrass juice, one may feel a difference in strength, endurance, health, and spirituality, and experience a sense of well-being.

> 30. Wheatgrass juice improves the digestion.
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> 31. It is great for blood disorders of all kinds.
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> 32. Wheatgrass juice is high in enzymes.
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> 33. Wheatgrass juice is an excellent skin cleanser and can be absorbed through the skin for nutrition. Pour green juice over your body in a tub of warm water and soak for 15 to 20 minutes. Rinse off with cool water.
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> 34. Wheatgrass implants (enemas) are great for healing and detoxifying the colon walls. The implants also heal and cleanse the internal organs. After an enema, wait 20 minutes, then implant 4-ounces of wheatgrass juice. Retain for 20 minutes.
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> 35. Wheatgrass juice is great for constipation and keeping the bowels open. It is high in magnesium.
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> 36. Dr. Birscher, a research scientist, called chlorophyll “concentrated sun power.” He said, “Chlorophyll increases the function of the heart, affects the vascular system, the intestines, the uterus and the lungs.”
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> 37. According to Dr. Birscher, nature uses chlorophyll (wheatgrass) as a body cleanser, rebuilder and neutralizer of toxins.
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> 38. Wheatgrass juice can dissolve the scars that are formed in the lungs from breathing acid gasses. The effect of carbon monoxide is minimized since chlorophyll increases hemoglobin production.
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> 39. Wheatgrass juice reduces high blood pressure as it enhances the capillaries.
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> 40. Wheatgrass juice can remove heavy metals from the body.
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> The Wheatgrass Book is available at Amazon.com.
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> *This information is derived from the writings of doctors and research scientists and is not meant to replace the services of your physician, but offered as educational information.

India follows the US: Pushing farmers out of agriculture, and invite industry to take over.

2010-03-25T00:16:00.000-07:00

Posted by Devinder Sharma at 10:56 AM

About 100 years back, the United States had pushed some 25 million people off the farms. In India, we are now trying to do the same. In the US, the native Indians were in lot many ways exterminated. In India, we are also picking up a leaf from the US copybook, and adopting it ruthlessly.

The latest essay by Arundhati Roy "Walking with the comrades" (Outlook, Mar 2010) tells you all. Ever since I read it believe me it has become difficult for me to let my thoughts emerge out of the jungles of Chhatisgarh. I admire the courage of Arundhati, and I feel she is perhaps amongst the great writers who have taken it upon themselves to stand by truth. As Arundhati wrote to me: "I am haunted by what is going on." I can understand how and why she feels like this.

But the urban population in India gives a damn. While I still can't believe that the industry and government are so blatantly hand in glove in driving out these simple tribal people from their habitat, the upwardly mobile in India are actually happy. In many ways the bigger tragedy is that people living in Delhi/Mumbai or the other burstling towns have no clue about the gun battle that goes on in the name of Operation Green Hunt.

The urbanites are happy and content, feeling safe and spend hours watching the IPL cricket matches. They live in their own make believe world, buttressed by government subsidies and doles in the name of development, and have little idea about the country beyond the outer limits of Delhi Metro (the new rail subway) for instance. They genuinely believe the war against Maoists is in some alien land. Who cares?

Anyway, I take you back to the farming model that India has adopted from the US. Paul Stephens, a 4th generation homestead-farmer from Highwood (in US), long ago driven off the land, had in Jan this year, sent me this communication:

"The Montana Agribusiness Association and the Grain Elevators Association are meeting today here in Great Falls - a big trade show, prominently featuring GMO firms like Monsanto and Bayern. They have been covered heavily (and completely uncritically) by Northern Broadcasting and other Montana media.

It seems unbelievable to me that most farmers and even grass-roots agriculture organizations like the Farmer's Union are almost completely ignorant of the massive destruction wrought by the promotion and use of GMO seeds, recombinant bovine growth hormones, the introduction of insecticide-producing genes into corn and other crops, and the whole movement toward "tillage-free agriculture", in which the ground is soaked with chemicals and herbicides instead of regular farming which aerates and loosens the soil to provide a healthy seed bed.

Last week, they had an even bigger convention, the MAGIE, which featured a spraying machine costing several hundred thousand dollars. Large corporate farms are adopting satellite technology (GPS) to control their machines. One salesman, probably unintentionally, made the bizarre statement that such a machine could save some small number of hours a year of farmer's time - at a cost, probably, of $1000's/hour for this "savings." It's like something out of science fiction, and yet, smaller, family farms (less than 2000 acres) are all but extinct here, and the larger ones exist entirely by government subsidies, amounting to billions of dollars a year just in Montana.

I've been trying to talk to farmers I knew for the past 40 years about the threats posed by factory farming and being taken in by the agribusiness monopolies. Unfortunately, their kids are the ones who are now selling it to them - trained by "land grant" universities like Montana State which have virtually been taken over by firms like Monsanto, becoming "partners in crime" with their program to destroy the small, family farm, and force everyone to use their toxic products.

I know it is a tough battle, and small farmers just don't think they have a chance of surviving by doing anything different. In fact, it's their only chance for survival."

Not only forced eviction, even technology is pushing farmers off the land. I am sure you can see a similar pattern being followed in Indian agriculture. This only goes to endorse what I have been saying for long. The entire objective of reforms in agriculture is to push farmers out of agriculture. It is an exit policy for farmers.

Barbara Panvel, another amazing activist from UK, has today sent me an analysis
which draws from a recent news report from the pages of Financial Times. The report entitled: "India's tribals in land fight with business" (FT Mar 9, 2010) is by Amy Kazmin, and she writes from Lohandiguda. This is what she says:

First, the land surveyors came. Then the rumours spread through the villages: Tata, one of India’s biggest conglomerates, would build a steel mill in the district.

Finally, government officials came to ask the villagers in Lohandiguda in Chhattisgarh state, who are mainly illiterate farmers from the Gond tribe, to relinquish their fields for the promise of cash, jobs and a better future.

For Banga Ram, the 65-year-old patriarch of a large family, the request was absurd. “What will we do with the money?” he asked. “We have to do agriculture to feed these children.” But local officials were not taking “No” for an answer.

Banga Ram was arrested. After he spent 13 days in jail, he says his sons signed away the land and accepted compensation.

In nearby Chindgaon village, Sundar Kashyap, who earns Rs10,000 ($219, €161, £146) a month working for the government animal husbandry department, says his bosses warned him of trouble if his younger brothers refused to sign over two of their five acres. They, too, signed.

Yet five years after Tata Steel announced its plans for the mill, the families of both men are still cultivating their ancestral fields. Officials are struggling to complete the contentious land acquisition, with 20 per cent of the required 5,000 hectares still outstanding and a local civil rights lawyer threatening legal action against the process.

“I am going to challenge it,” says Pratap Agrawal, an attorney in the nearby small town of Jagdalpur. “Villagers are absolutely against handing over even an inch of their land.”

Battles over forcible acquisition of agricultural land for industry are raging across India. But nowhere are they as fraught as in India’s tribal belt, where long-neglected indigenous animist tribes, known as adivasis, have upset the plans of corporate groups such as Vedanta, Tata Steel, Essar Steel and National Mineral Development Corp to tap mineral riches. (You can read the full report at http://www.chs-sachetan.org/?page_id=18)

Well, did you notice how similar with the US is the approach that India is following? Once these tribals are displaced, and the World Bank has suggested training them to become industrial workers, the agribusiness industry will move in with their own battery of economists and agricultural scientists. They will shout from the roof-top that the industry is required for launching the 2nd Green Revolution, and the Planning Commision will oblige by reforming the food security parameters (see todays lead story in ET: Montak calls for sweeping reforms to boost farmville).

It is the beginning of the end of farmers.

Shouldn't we thank the US for showing us the way to get rid of our farmers? It all begins with exterminating the native population (in India, since we do not use the word native, we call them tribals).

Mera Bharat Mahaan!

Why Go Organic – Ten Top Reasons

2010-03-18T09:53:00.000-07:00

Why Go Organic
Monday, February 15, 2010 posted by batalionn

Here are the ten top reasons to GO ORGANIC
EFFECTS ON OUR TOPSOIL
The soil of our earth is the foundation of the whole human and environmental food chain and thus our survival. The typical organic farm is teaming with life – from butterflies, to frogs, to bees, to you name it. Conventional farms have polluted and depleted and thus “dead” soils. They have been rendered sterile, using herbicides and pesticides to kill other life forms. Also through the vast degradation of our soil, we are losing cropland topsoil seven times faster than it is being replaced naturally. This ties in to the philosophy of raw-wisdom that the conventional vision of nature is death-centered mechanical rather than life-centered.

EFFECTS ON OUR WATERS
Nearly 700 hundred toxic chemicals pollute our groundwater, many of them coming from agricutural pesticides and herbicides. These chemicals cause cancer and other debilitating illnesses and are not removed by conventional means. Virtually all the drinking water in the US is polluted and 2/3rds of our own bodies are made up of water.
IMPACT ON ENERGY USE
Conventional farming methods use far more gas and petroleum, both to create chemical fertilizers and to till, cultivate and harvest crops. Organic farms are more labor-intensive. Government subsidized conventional farms use 12% of the US total energy consumption. Ultimately we pay the far, far higher price either in taxes and/or the horrid devastation that yields global warming.

IMPACT ON THE QUALITY OF NUTRITION
US agriculture uses more than 800 different toxic pesticides. Over 3,000 chemicals overall are mixed into our foods directly, and nearly 10,000 are used in the production and storing of foods. Most of these chemicals are harmful to our health. They may engender cancer, birth defects, neurological illnesses, dementia and other serious dysfunctions. According to the EPA, 60% of herbicides, 90% of fungicides and 30% of pesticides are strongly carcinogenic. The National Academy of Sciences estimate as far back as 1987 that pesticides could cause over a million cancer cases in the US alone over our lifetimes. On the positive side, organic produce has repeatedly been proven to have higher levels of essential nutrients, being grow in more living, mineral-rich, composted soils.

EFFECT ON FARM WORKERS
Studies have shown a link between pesticide use and Parkinson’s disease, leukemia and cancers among farm workers. An NCI study found that farm workers employed on conventional farms had 6x higher risk of getting cancer. A California study showed that farm workers in the field had the highest occupational illnesses rates of all California workers.

IMPACT ON SMALL FARMER SURVIVAL
Most organic farms are family-owned with less than a 100 acres. There has been a vast decimation of family farms for the past few decades. At the turn of the 20th century, farming was the primary livelihood in the US. Now it represents less than 1%. Organic farming remains among the last refuges for surviving family farms amid competition from large industrial farms that try to “cut-throat monopolize” the market. Over a million family farms have been lost over the last couple decades.

REAL ECONOMIC COSTS ARE LESS
Amid the illusions of the marketplace created by political forces, again many fail to see that organic foods are actually cheaper overall. First conventional farming is hugely subsidized and has hidden costs that are borne by all taxpayers. If you add the health and environmental costs, organic produce is really and truly the least expensive. We must remember that in the US medical costs have risen from 5% to 16% of the GNP in the last 20 years. Then there is hazardous waste removal costs and that of toxic substance testing and regulation, soil erosion, loss of fertility, wildlife decimation, and so on and so forth ad infinitum. You get the picture.

PROMOTES BIODIVERSITY
Organic farms tend to preserve heirloom varieties while large conventional farms do not and engage in sterile, mechanistic monocropping. The latter requires increasingly more lethal pesticide use as pest become resistant over time and crops become subject to wholesale blights. It was monocropping, followed by a blight, that caused the famous Irish potato famine.

PROTECTS OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE
Children ingest up to 4X the level of toxic residues compared to that of their parents. Tests have shown that exposure in early life, as early as in the womb , reveals residues in the placenta fluids. This often leads to much more cancer latter in life. The damage can be passed on genetically to affect all subsequent generations in a harmful way. This is why we need to detox or help our bodies get rid of lifetime toxic loads. If all-organic food buying seems expensive at first, consider skipping a meal to help your body detox. Or fast for a day. Or shop at a direct farmers market, plant your own organic home garden, work a few hours for your local food coop and/or farm in exchange, and so on. Be creative. Where there is a will there is always a way!

MOVES AWAY FROM AN UNWISE VISION OF NATURE
All living forms have awareness because life’s foundation resides in a presence of consciousness. From tiny nano-bacteria to huge dinasours, living organisms have awareness. This awareness forms, in my experience, the universal relationship ofconnection in all of nature, and ultimately the foundation of oneness that interconnects all living creatures. The mechanical worldview of the 17th century disrupts and destroys this weave. This is because its view is based on universally separative symbols (math symbols used to create the mechanical vision). The mechanical view is thus based on opposite principles to those of life in nature. This is the root reason why when the mechanical vision is deeply (not surface) applied, this unravels the connective weave of ecospheres. Actually the deeper applications threaten the sustainability of life on earth. This is further why toxic pesticides and herbicides are being banned in several nations. Otherwise we follow a death-delivering approach to farming – with carcinogenic impacts on our body and vast disruptions of surrounding nature.

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR – GO ORGANIC
For these ten reasons and more, let us very wisely GO ORGANIC TO THRIVE.

Dismantling Democracy, Science and the Public Interest to put GMO’s on Fast Track

2010-02-28T23:20:00.000-08:00

Posted on Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Reflections on the Proposed National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA) and National Biotechnology Regulatory Bill, 2008

By Dr. Vandana Shiva

Genetically Engineered Organisms (GMOs) are transgenic organisms made by introducing genes across species boundaries. Thus Bt. Cotton, or Bt. Rice or Bt. Brinjal has genes for a toxin taken from a soil bacteria and put into the food crop. In addition, GMO’s use anti-biotic resistance markets, viral promoters and cancer genes as vectors. These new genes can have risks for public health and the environment. Ensuring safety in the context of genetically engineered organisms is referred to as Biosafety.

India has one of the most sophisticated Laws of Biosafety in the world. The “Rules for the Manufacture, Use / Import / Export and storage of Hazardous micro-organisms / genetically engineered organisms or cells”, 1989, notified under the Enviornmental Portection Act, 1986 is science based public interest oriented legislation created long before the commercialization of genetically engineered organisms (GMOs) and crops and long before the International Biosafety Protocol of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity came into force.

The genetic engineering industry, in particular Monsanto, which controls 95% of all GM seeds sold worldwide, first tried to by pass India’s Biosafety Law when it started field trials without approval of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, the statutory body for Biosafety regulation. The rules clearly state –

9(i) Deliberate or unintentional release of genetically engineered organisms / hazardous microorganisms or including, deliberate release for the purpose of experiment shall not be allowed.

Note : Deliberate release shall mean any intentional transfer of genetically engineered organisms / hazardous micro-organisms or cells to the environment or nature, irrespective of the way in which it is done.

Field trials of GMO’s are clearly a deliberate release. That is why when Monsanto – Mahyco started field trials of Bt. Cotton in 1997-98, without approval of the GEAC we initiated a case in the Supreme Court of India to challenge the illegal trials. As a result commercialization of Bt. Cotton was delayed upto 2002.

The sequence of events, which took place in implementing the illegal trials in India, can be briefly outlined as:
24th April 1998 Mahyco files to Department of Biotechnology for field trials
May 1998 Joint venture between Mahyco and Monsanto formed
13th July 1998 Letter of Intent issued by DBT without involving Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC).
15th July 1998 Mahyco agrees to conditions in letter of intent.
27th July 1998 Impugned permission by DBT for trials at 25 locations granted.
5th August 1998 Permission for second set of trials at 15 locations granted
6th January 1999 PIL filed by Research Foundation for Science Technology and Ecology in the Supreme Court of India
8th February 1999 RCGM expresses satisfaction over the trial results at 40 locations.
12th April 1999 RCGM directs Mahyco to submit application for trials at 10 locations before Monitoring and Evaluation Committee
25th May 1999 Revised proposal to RCGM submitted by Mahyco.
June–Nov 1999 Permission granted for different trial fields
Oct–Nov 1999 Field visits
May 2000 Mahyco’s letter to GEAC seeking approval for “release for large scale commercial field trials and hybrid seed production of indigenously developed Bt cotton hybrids”.’
July 2000 GEAC clears for large-scale field trials on 85 hectares and seed production on 150 hectares and notifies through press release.
October 2000 RFSTE filed an application for amendment in the petition challenging the fresh GEAC clearance.
04.03.2005 GEAC orders uprooting of “Navbharat-15”, which was found to contain transgenic Bt.
26.03.2002 32nd Meeting of the GEAC was held to examine the issue of commercial release of Bt Cotton. Members of GEAC from ICHR, Health Ministry, Commerce Ministry, CSIR, ICAR did not attend the meeting. Inspite of the absence of important members of the GEAC, approval was granted to three out of four of Monsanto Mahyco’s transgenic hybrids.
05.04.2002 Formal approval granted to mach-12, Mach – 162 and Mach 184 by A.M. Gokhale, Chair of GEAC. Order of 05.04.2002 is a conditional clearance valid for three years. The stipulated conditions/restrictions are a clear implied admission on the part of the government that the tests are far from complete. In effect, the commercialisation was an experiment. Monsanto-Mahyco had been asked to gather further data and submit annual reports on the resistance that the insects develop over a period of time to GM seeds and to conduct studies on resistance to bollworm, susceptibility tests, and tests for cross pollination.
02.03.2005 In March, RFSTE releases results of continued failure of Bt Cotton, especially in Andhra Pradesh.
04.03.2005 GEAC rejects renewal of the 3 Bt Cotton varieties planted in the Southern States. However, other Bt varieties are cleared in Northern States.

In any case the Review Committee of Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) does not have the authority to approve field trials. According to the “Rules”. The RCGM “shall function in the Department of Biotechnology to monitor the safety related aspects in respect of on-going research projects and activities involving genetically engineered organisms / hazardous microorganisms”. Clearly RCGM is not an approving authority. The industry has repeatedly used the RCGM and the Biotechnology Department to subvert India’s Biosafety Laws. Now that citizens have used this law effectively, industry is trying to have it dismantled.

The latest attempt at Biosafety Deregulation by the Biotechnology Department is to float the proposal for a National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority and a National Biotechnology Regulatory Bill, 2008. As the proposal states “DBT is considering to promulgate new legislation National Biotechnology Regulatory Act (NBR Act).

The false argument being used is that biotechnology regulation is currently spread over multiple acts. This is not true. There is only one Act, the Rules for GMO’s under the EPA, regulating GMO’s in all fields. It is also being argued that the NBRA will promote public confidence. The public will not and cannot have confidence in an industry driven, centralized, undemocratic, unaccountable law and institution floated by the agency which is a biotechnology promoting agency, and has done everything in the last decade to undermine citizens rights and the public interest. This is a direct attempt to replace India’s excellent Biosafety Law with industry friendly legislation, and to replace the GEAC as a Biosafety Regulation Authority with the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority to promote biotechnology, not biosafety.

The National Biotechnology Regulatory Bill refers to “consolidation of regulatory policies, rules and services under a single biotechnology authority”. There is already a single biosafety authority for all biotechnology approvals – the GEAC. It needs strengthening, not substitution and dismantling. Further, the proposal authority, like the GEAC is restricted to modern biotechnology or genetic engineering, defined as “the application of in vitro nucleic acid techniques, including recombinant direct injection of nucleic acid (DNA) and direct injection of nucleic acid into cells or organelles, or fusion of cells beyond the taxonomic family, that overcome natural physiological reproductive or recombination barriers and that are not techniques used in traditional breeding and selection.

The proposed authority undermines the regulatory role of diverse ministries and the rights of states and districts. The GEAC consists of members from different ministries, agencies and departments, as well as expert members who are heads of Agricultural Research, Medical Research, Scientific and Industrial Research, D.G Health Services, Directorate of Plant Protection, Chairman Pollution Control Board. The existing law allows creates State Biotechnology Coordination Committee (SBCC), District Level Committee (DLC). In the proposed authority, the statutory bodies role of diverse ministries has been replaced by an Inter-Ministerial Advisory Board, with no authority, but only to promote Central Government Cooperation. The checks and balances, and the decentralized institutions reflecting our federal, democratic structure that are part of the existing law are being destroyed to make it easy for industry to get approvals. As the proposed law states 6(3). “The Inter-ministrial Advisory Board and the National Biotechnology Advisory Council will have no authority to intervene on product specific decisions made by the NBRA.”

Both the different Ministries, diverse agencies and the States have thus been robbed of decision making powers which is vital to the functioning of democratic structures in the public interest.

The functions of the proposed Authority totally overlap with the functions of CEAC. Thus this is a proposal to displace GEAC. The Authority also proposes to displace the Ministry of Environment as the nodal agency for international negotiations for regulating the risks of genetic engineering.

Instead of a multi-ministerial committee, all powers for decision making are proposed to be concentrated in one individual, the chairperson, who will be a biotechnologist, with skills in genetic engineering but no skills or expertise in Biosafety.

The proposed authority is thus centralized, individualistic biased in favour of genetic engineering and hence will lend itself to easy influence of the genetic engineering industry.

The Bill clearly states that the following laws will stand repealed when the Bill becomes an Act. Among the Acts mentioned are –

1. Rules for the manufacture, use, import, export and storage of hazardous micro-organisms, genetically engineered organisms or cells, 1989 issued under Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. To be amended to exclude genetically engineered organisms or cells from the mandate / scope of the Rules.
2. Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006
1. Section 13(3)(c) : The Scientific Panel may be established for genetically modified foods. Genetically modified organisms to be taken out of the mandate of FSSA.
2. Section 22(2) : The definition of genetically engineered or modified food to be amended to exclude foods and food ingredients composed of or containing genetically modified or genetically engineered organisms.
3. Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 8th Amendment :
1. The definition of recombinant drug to include all therapeutic proteins derived from recombinant organisms, but exclude recombinant biologics (eg. DNA vaccines, gene therapy products etc)
4. The Drugs and Cosmetics (Amendment) Bill, 2007
1. To exclude clinical trials, pre commercial safety assessment, product approval and post release monitoring of recombinant biologics.
5. The Seed Bill, 2004 :
1. Section 15 on Special provision for registration of transgenic varieties: In clause 1 Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 to be replaced with National Biotechnology Regulatory Act.
6. Proposed Plant Quarantine Bill
1. Section 6(2)(o): Regulating the import of transgenic materials, to be modified as “regulating the import of transgenic material subject to the approval of the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority”.

In other words, all safety regulation for health and environment will be demolished in one fell swoop if the National Biotechnology Regulatory Bill is passed and the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority is established.

The existing Biosafety Law needs to be upheld. It is an excellent Law. Weakness in implementation needs strengthening of institutions and processes. Not the dismantling of a good Law and its replacement by a centralized, biased Law which is good for industry but a disaster for citizens right to health and environmental safety.
--

Nuances on environment by an extraordinary dancer, Malavika Sarukkai

2010-02-13T00:11:00.000-08:00

Courtesy photo: K.N.Muralidharan

Greetings from MY Right to Safe Food

Last evening, I was invited by a dear friend Dr Vasavi from National Institute of Advanced studies- NIAS to attend my first lecture dance of Bharatnatyam by Malavika Sarukkai. Mind you, I have attended several Bharatnatyam performances but when Malavika started in her all encompassing energised sprite, there appeared images of some dancers both young and the senior ones, who have never left such a profound lasting impact on me.

You may be wondering what dance has got to do with safe foods, read on and find out.

Words cannot express this most breath taking language of dance, the word performance dilutes it. Malavika is no ordinary artist. I was so overwhelmed and tearfully joyous as i was held captive to her soul like moves. She succinctly shared the nuances that merges space and movement, two different polarities but so complement each other. What really touched the core of my being was her two striking environment pieces, so vivid even now "Yudhistra's dream"from our epic Mahabharata, where she enacted the emotive language of the fearful deers who pleaded with Yudhistra to be heard and not be victims of his might. She echoed the unheard voices, the mute pleas from our forest dwellers, so ruthlessly and mercilessly destroyed for greed by these thoughtless superior race of human beings. Where co-existence is not a factor in our well being, like the Earth belongs to us alone and no one else!

The other magnificent piece was on the pained life of Salamarda Timakka, a humble woman who hails from Karnataka and grieves at her barren state. She sows a seed of a Banyan, only to witness the miracle of life germinating through the womb of the Earth. Realisation dawns at nature's bounty. Today she is a proud mother to not one banyan tree but 247 banyan trees!

Through Malavika's delicate choreography placing art before the artist, being one with the character, turning it into an elegant, effortless and joyous expression, I so connected with her sensitive and sensual balance in displaying the treacherous exploitation of Mother Earth, where soil and seeds are so sacred to me. As always said " Seeds belong to no one, they are a gift of life to life itself". It our legacy and heritage and cannot rest with a handful corrupt and manipulative MNC's.

Malavika relayed all of the above and stressed the importance of imparting beauty to each movement through space and time, so graceful and relaxed. She transported me to her time and space that existed souley between us, through ecstasy. Every part of my being came alive, as if everything else around me was nullified, static and i was merged in her being.

For several minutes after her show, i was gob smacked not wishing to let those moments go but much to my delight, i had the fine opportunity to meet with Malavika in person during dinner. I was so choked upon seeing her that could barely contain my emotion of gratitude and in return was bestowed by a warm hug.

I never realised the impact this would have to my mind that no sooner my farmers arrived this morning, i narrated in excitement and shared with my farmer women by downloading through utube some pieces of her magnificent art. The reaction upon seeing so moved dear Selvi who hails from Tamil Nadu, a dedicated farmer whose instant reaction was "Can my daughter learn when she grows a bit older from this divine dancer?"

You have found a fan and well wisher in me and my farmers, wish you Malavika in abundance as does Nature with seemless boundaries, sowing seeds of consciousness.

Look forward to your next performance and launch of your DVD on March 19th at NIAS.

Warmly

Sangita Sharma

Hearty Congratulations to Jairam Ramesh on his verdict - NO TO BT BRINJAL

2010-02-09T22:33:00.000-08:00

Greetings from My Right to Safe Food

Words cannot express my joy. This is the most wonderful news in a long time, all our back breaking efforts have germinated to fruition.

MoEF report is very elaborate, the transparency displayed by Jairam Ramesh is absolutely commendable and heartening. Truly he has proven to be a Son of this Soil. The annexures uploaded is not just to vindicate his decision but also serves a purpose of highlighting the State Government letters, scientists letters both pro and anti, many research papers, the reactions given by many doctors on biosafety and a special paper on Bt brinjal impact on Ayurveda/siddha. Civil society organisations and citizen letters galore are all there bringing forth what was said by who and how much consensus was there on these issues.

We have Jairam Ramesh to thank for, for passing a wise and just verdict, he certainly makes our nation proud. Millions of us offer our sincere gratitude to him.

For broadcasting this widely and reaching millions, many thanks to the green guardians in the media.

And most of all a HURRAY, BRAVO and warm heartfelt thanks to each and every one's committed efforts from the Coalition for a GM Free India, our farmers and farmer associations, the diverse groups from each States, ethical scientists, concerned doctors and nutritionists, conscious bureaucrats, the CM 's of 14 State's to declare to the Centre on their stand against Bt Brinjal, Spiritual leaders lending support, consumers from all walks, celebrities, our energised youth and faculty throughout our nation and many more....resulting in a moratorium of Bt Brinjal.

Though it is not the end of the issue, we still need to continue in our efforts to ensure a complete Ban of GMO's in India.

Victory is ours

We have the Power to heal our Planet

In solidarity

Sangita Sharma
http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/

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The PIB press release.

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=57727

Decision on Commercialisation of Bt Brinjal
9th Feb 2010 - 18:22 IST

Following a series of nationwide consultations, the Minister for Environment and Forests (I/C) today announced his decision on the production and use of BT Brinjal. He also made public a copy of his exhaustive report which relies on inputs received from stakeholders from all across the spectrum of scientists, civil society, academics, Chief Ministers of various states and others concerned. Following is an excerpt from the statement issued today:

“Based on all the information presented in the preceding paragraphs and when there is no clear consensus within the scientific community itself, when there is so much opposition from the state governments, when responsible civil society organisations and eminent scientists have raised many serious questions that have not been answered satisfactorily, when the public sentiment is negative and when Bt-brinjal will be the very first genetically-modified vegetable to be introduced anywhere in the world and when there is no over-riding urgency to introduce it here, it is my duty to adopt a cautious, precautionary principle-based approach and impose a moratorium on the release of Bt-brinjal, till such time independent scientific studies establish, to the satisfaction of both the public and professionals, the safety of the product from the point of view of its long-term impact on human health and environment, including the rich genetic wealth existing in brinjal in our country.

A moratorium implies rejection of this particular case of release for the time being; it does not, in any way, mean conditional acceptance. This should be clearly understood.”

Congratulations to Jairam Ramesh for carrying out the 7 States public consultations as set out by him

2010-02-08T07:42:00.000-08:00

Greetings from My Right to Safe Food

Bangalore was an extraordinary consultation in my opinion. A fiery one with 75% saying No to Bt Brinjal. After reading/viewing the wide coverage in almost all news channels, newspapers regional, national on this last consultation by Jairam Ramesh MoEF, it was disappointing to note that more criticism were hurled out at Jairam Ramesh for having lost his cool, whilst provocations were from both sides. It is only natural to react, and it is not easy to maintain control when unruly allegations fly across at each other without supporting evidence. At least, he had the decency to apologise and continue the dialogue with the person he had lost his cool with giving a fair chance to be heard. Sure, there were unnecessary undemocratic allegations from Jairam Ramesh but compare this to the list of hopeless Ministers who sit on the seat of power like the Sharad Pawar - the sugar and cricket baron, minting notes at the expense of the masses who gives two hoots about GM foods, food prices or farmers suicides!!!

Why do we fail to recognise the transparency, dignity, and wit (not liked by many) displayed by him throughout all the 7 State consultations as a remarkable feat.

First and foremost, name me one Minister in our country who has the courage of conviction to display transparency in approach and hold public consultations !!! We are a nation of ungrateful souls and fail to acknowledge the good points displayed by at least one intelligent minister Jairam Ramesh. He needs to be congratulated for making Bt Brinjal a National issue. Let us not forget it.

Sure, we await the out come on 10th Feb with abated breaths and hope his decision will also be a wise and fair one and benefits our nation as claimed strongly by him. Reading between the lines, his decision will slant to more safety testing for a minimum number of year/s, he will neither approve Bt Brinjal nor reject it.

We need to continue with the same zest to ensure raising awareness on GM foods, challenge, provide research data and not go slack on this front. Bt Brinjal is just the entry point of GM foods, we have only averted its entry for a short interim just as in the case of Bt Cotton. The only difference lies that we must ensure banning Bt Brinjal's entry into our food chain, otherwise it opens the door for 56 GM food crops from all levels and for all times to come.

The diverse forces that came together on the 6th Feb to voice concerns was just a proof in point that united we stand. And with 13 States declaring to the Centre that they will not have
Bt Brinjal is indeed the only way forward to safeguard our food security and seed sovereignty.

We have the power to heal our planet.

In solidarity

Sangita Sharma
http://www.myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/

Invitation to "Seeds of Future" - 20 min skit at Culah 2010 hosted by Mount Carmel College

2010-02-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

"Seeds of Future" by Sarang

MY RIGHT TO SAFE FOOD sponsored by ANNADANA SOIL AND SEED SAVERS Invite you all to a 20min skit "Seeds of the Future" Developed in 2008, by Sarang at the Culah 2010 Jungle Fever, A National Cultural Fest hosted by Mount Carmel College Over 60 colleges participating and over 8000 students attending

Date - 4th Feb 2010

Time - 2.30pm - 3pm

Venue - Main Auditorium, Mount Carmel College (MCC),Palace Road, Vasanth Nagar, Bangalore -560052

Synopsis - As part of a learning exercise on the threats of the so-called ‘modern’ agriculture poignantly articulated by village children who apply miming techniques and projection technology. Minimum use of language is used, so as to adapt to audiences anywhere in the world. These young creative masterminds aged 8 to 21 raise awareness on the adverse affects of pesticide laden foods and further alert consumers on the sneaky onslaught of GM crops.

Contact - Sangita Sharma, http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/ +91 9448068347
Palak Agarwal ( Asst - Cultural Secretary MCC) +91 9972524511
Anuradha Sarang - Sarang Team - 09481184685
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A Concept Note to the Play

"Seeds of the Future"

Welcome to the Village. It could be one of hundreds deep in the heart of India. Its people live a self-reliant happy life. True, they work hard each day, but always in tandem with nature not against it. They are safe and satisfied in their simple lives. Life is a celebration of nature’s bounty for them.

Then one day, Big Boots, the multinational company steps into the village. Big Boots is busy collecting samples of traditional seeds, cattle for research and terrifies the farmers. Big boot’s messenger, the liaison officer arrives to assure the villagers that they are not enemies. That they have the technology to quadruple their harvest. He slowly lures the villagers into leaving their traditional ways and joining the ‘modern’ agriculture his company propagates. All but one. There’s one doubtful villager who believes that all this comes at a cost. He rebels against the change and desperately tries to convince his friends, but is gradually isolated from the others who are wonder-struck at their sudden prosperity. He threads in and out of the scenes collecting traditional seeds. They see the wonders of 'green' revolution, 'white' revolution and the use of large machinery. The villagers start noticing pests in their farms. They get worried and approach the liaison officer for advice. He initiates them into using pesticides.Then one day, the richest farmer/farm in the village is dying. The villagers along with the liaison officer try to perk him up using various props(more pesticide sprays etc) but to no avail. He dies. This shocks the villagers. They realize their folly and join hands with the rebel. They fight the liaison officer and overpower him.

In the climax, the seeds which have been tossed from one to another are seen to be safe in the hands of children, the seeds of our future.

P.S - Images enclosed

Background to Sarang Team

Sarang is an alternative school based in Kerala. In the year 1979, Gopalakrishnan & Vijayalekshmi, a young teacher couple embarked on a quest for an education system that would allow their child to grow into a good human being, responsible and responsive to the society. Sarang was conceived and developed around their first son, Gautham. Along with his wife, Anuradha, he strives to carry forward Sarang’s mission. Over the years, hundreds of children and adults have grown with Sarang. At present, along with Kannaki and Unniyarcha, Gautham’s sisters, there are eight more children at Sarang. Their age group is from 8 to 21. They live and learn together. Their parents are farmers, daily wages workers and from villages whose common goal is to nurture their children into good human beings.

In 1983, with the realization that education was not complete without agriculture which forms the basis of human life, the Sarang couple bought some barren land atop a hill to experiment with. Learning from old farmers and from hands-on work, they gradually converted the once arid land into a lush green land with plentiful water. From then on, organic farming has been a vital part of Sarang’s dynamic curriculum and lifestyle. Children as well as adults at Sarang learn the basics of natural farming by cultivating vegetable patches, experimenting with seeds, working on the land whenever possible and keeping their minds as fertile as the land. They feel the need to raise awareness about the threats posed by GM crops deeply and travel extensively carrying their message, emphasizing the importance of natural & organic farming and the need for protecting & propagating traditional seeds for the future generations.
http://saranghills.org

Note - National Consultation on Bt Brinjal in Bangalore on 06 February, 2010

2010-01-31T19:59:00.000-08:00

Greetings from " My Right to Safe Food"

Please read below, mark this crucial date as we need to ensure that we all gather with the same gusto, drawing inspiration from the roaring success of the public consultations already taken place in 6 States.

Hyderabad
Source - http://beta.thehindu.com/news/states/andhra-pradesh/article98024.ece?homepage=true
After hearing a large number of farmers, social activists, scientists, doctors, representatives of NGOs and farmers and consumer organisations for more than two-and-a-half hours (a majority of them arguing against Bt brinjal and GM crops), Mr. Jairam Ramesh said he would announce his decision on the first GM food crop in the country on February 10.

“My decision won’t be influenced by any quarter, including scientists, NGOs, agriculture universities or Monsanto. Neither is there any pressure from the PMO nor the Prime Minister. My decision will be fair and judicious, and will be based purely on the outcome of consultations,” he said.

I am sure Mr Jairam Ramesh will stand to his word by not only being fair and judicious but a Wise and Just Minister, doing our Nation proud.

In solidarity

Sangita Sharma
http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/
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Dear Sir / Madam,

Sub: National Consultation on Bt Brinjal at Bangalore on 06 February, 2010.

This has reference to the subject mentioned above and our previous communications to your office.

The above consultation has been scheduled as per the details below:

Date:
06 February, 2010

Time:
10:00am to 2.00pm
Venue:
Jnana Jyoti Auditorium
Central College Campus
Palace Road, Near Mysore Bank
Bangalore - 560 001

We request you to circulate this information among the various groups/stakeholders regarding this programme. For more information about this programme kindly visit our website URL www.ceeindia.org

Thanking you,

Ishwar C. Poojar
Programme Coordinator

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> Centre for Environment Education
> #143, Kamala Mansion
> Infantry Road, Bangalore- 560 001
> Ph: 080-22869094/22869907/22868037/39
> Fax: 080-22868209
> e-mail: ishwar.poojar@ceeindia.org
> ceekarnataka@ceeindia.org